Well we’re off to a pretty good start. It’s noon as I write this. Hazard has run three times qualifying all three runs; with first placements in Starters Gamblers and Starters Standard, and a second placement in the Grand Prix Regional.

This was the starters gamble. While it looks like a simple lateral-distance kind of performance it is subtly more difficult than it looks.

Many dogs will incline toward the handler during the performance of the collapsed tunnel to the extent that the chute will move 12” or 18” towards the handler’s position. The trajectory of the dog’s path on the exit from the collapsed chute is likely to be anything but the nice lateral distance parallel to the handler’s own path.

Many handler’s tried to run the dog through the line. But if you really think about it all you are really doing is having the dog take the wrong line faster.

What I did with Hazard in this closing is increased my lateral distance while she was engaged in the performance of the collapsed tunnel while at the same time giving a bit of counter-rotation. Note that I really didn’t want her to see the counter-rotation because that causes a dog to draw closer to the handler.

Now as she makes her exit I wind back the other direction and take a compelling step applying pressure against her path to push her back out to the jump.

Well it all happened in a whipstitch of time. And it worked. That’s my story and I’m gonna stick to it.

End of Day

Young Hazard went 5 of 6 on the day, qualifying in Gamblers, Standard, Pairs, Jumpers and the Grand Prix. In the Steeplechase she took a wrong course (tunnel under the A-frame)… and I just ran out of the ring with her.

As the day wore on Hazard slowed down quite a bit. I don’t think she’s used to getting up at 5:00 am in the morning. Come to think of it, neither am I. I’m pretty tired now. I believe I’ll put the Ohio state football game on, and go to bed. More tomorrow.