We’re undergoing a transformation in our sport that will have important consequences to exhibitors, agility organizations, training clubs, and training service providers… the semi-pro//recreational schism. I see the break in the community very clearly. The seed of the transformation was planted pretty much as the sport began in this country. But for the longest time the vast majority of our numbers came from the family dog of any breed with an emphasis on the recreational benefit of playing the game.

The drive to excel is strong and fundamental to the human psyche. It was natural for so many of us to seek out breeds and individual dogs whose physical and mental prowess might allow us to play at the top of the game. As a consequence the agility community has been wrenching itself apart into two disconnected communities; one being the true recreational players, and the other the semi-pro and (in greater numbers) the wanna bes.

What does this mean to the agility organization? Unfortunately, the three largest of the U.S. organizations… the AKC, USDAA and NADAC all seek to cater to the elite players, largely ignoring the recreational players, or consigning them to second class status. This largely accounts for the growing popularity of venues like CPE and the TDAA. This is a trend we’ll see continue over the next few years as the majority of players will learn the painful lesson in the national tournaments of the big three… that they are defeated before they even show up.

To agility training centers the dichotomy of the schism calls for the providence of separate programs; one for the recreational player and one for the world class players (and the wanna bes). There truly are some major differences in training approach between the two. The player with elitist aspirations must and will attend to a variety of foundation training details with a young dog and will reinforce and nurture the dog’s skills throughout the dog’s competition career. As for the recreational player… well heck, it’s problematic whether he’ll even do his basic homework.

I have to draw an analogy between dog agility and baseball. While there are many of us who enjoy playing baseball for fun and recreation… there are only a few of us who will be called to play the majors. It’s like… one in a million.

Live by the Blind – Die by the Blind

The spacing of obstacles in the TDAA is intentionally set considerably closer together so that the small and fast dog handler can get a sense of the timing required by handlers of big and fast dogs. The challenges for small dogs in the big dog venues are relatively inconsequential. The handler can make two errors in movement between two obstacles… and has enough space to recover from both. In the TDAA the tight transitions make any error unforgiving.

I work very hard to teach my students a Blind Cross. The sequence upon which it is taught might be the serpentine. It’s useful to understand that the Blind Cross is essentially a weak signal. In the short sequence illustrated here the pipe tunnels that book-end the serpentine constitute “options”… meaning that the pipe tunnel is more compelling to the dog than the turn to the last jump in the serpentine. If the handler pulls this last turn as a Blind Cross the chances of a wrong-course go up to a 20% to 30% likelihood if not higher.

One of the questions a handler has to ask is why do we do a Blind Cross? Well, it’s a racer’s movement. The handler races forward of the dog because he has an interest in maintaining a position forward of the dog. But if you look at the sequence the interest in staying forward of the dog pretty much evaporates after jump #3 at the start and after jump #7 coming from the opposite direction. It would be much keener handling to use a Front Cross after either of these jumps because the counter-rotation of the handler’s body is so compelling to the dog that it will convince the dog to make the turn to the jump rather than forging on to the pipe tunnel. The Front Cross is a strong signal.

The handler might also build a natural speed change into the sequence. This surely requires a bit of an explanation. Either a Front Cross or a Blind Cross is slow-dog handling, which means the handler is putting his movement forward of the dog and pulling. A Back Cross or a Tandem Turn would be fast-dog handling, which means the handler is putting his movement behind the dog, and pushing.

In this sequence the handler could step to the landing side of jump #2 for a Front Cross, drawing the dog around on Post for jump #3 and then flip the dog into the turn with a Back Cross or a Tandem Turn. The Post Turn is a speed neutral movement represents the change of speeds. The Back Cross might actually be more reliable because its attribute is to create a tightened turn on the landing side, which should help the dog make the turn to the last jump in the serpentine. A attribute of a Tandem is to create acceleration and separation which might push the dog wrong-course into the pipe tunnel rather than convincing the dog into the turn.