After my return from Pocatello I got to be home for a day before taking off to Portland, OR where I lead a TDAA judging clinic. I return home in time for a flurry of private lessons, a weekend mini-clinic, and my last camp of the year. Oh, and I had to fit in there a couple days for finishing up a suite of courses for DOCNA which I’ll be judging in PA in about three weeks. I’ve not been diligent with keeping my weblog current; and must plead simple exhaustion. 

This is an unleveled camp, meaning that I have students of different levels of skill and experience. I’ve learned to be very comfortable in this camp format though challenged by the necessity to make an exercise challenging to the experienced handler without over-facing the less experienced handler.

Layering

 

One of my many objectives with anyone who comes to train with me is to explore opportunities for working the dog at a distance. A comfortable exercise is a three tunnel layering drill. You’ll note in this illustration, we make the introduction to the dog. The handler gets his dog into the first tunnel, and then steps outside of the line of tunnels to work parallel to the dog as the dog finishes the final line of jumps. The interesting thing about this exercise is how many dogs feel completely comfortable working away from the handler.

Escalation

 

This escalation is a tiny bit more difficult as it requires the handler to send the dog on into the jumping sequence before establishing the path parallel to the dog. The interesting moment in the sequence will be in the turn from jump #4 to the pipe tunnel at #5. The important teaching point is that the dog turns when the handler turns… not where the handler turns.

Politics

I’ve been earnestly trying to apply the theory of the (Georg Hegel’s) Hegelian Pendulum Shift to the events of our day. Specifically I’m interested in the dramatic reversal of political thought and fortune. In our own government we’ve made a sudden change from the low-brow, corrupt, inept, hateful, and anti-intellectual rule of the Republicans to the new Obama Democrats who promise to be enlightened, thoughtful, and somewhat socialistic. The story hasn’t really been written yet, otherwise I would be prone to more flowery prose. At any rate, this is a huge shift.

Hegel was concerned with what he called the “dialectic”; and he composed three basic laws to describe how it works. He asserted that historical developments follow a process in which a conflict between two extremes is resolved. This is fairly fascinating in our own culture because the Republican and Democratic parties represent two extremes of social and political thought within the American culture. And Hegel promises resolution!

The first law says that every historical event follows a necessary course; and could not have happened in any other way. In my early adulthood I was fairly certain that the young Isaac Asimov in writing the Foundation trilogy was inspired as much by Hegel as by alcohol. And making his own leap in logic conceived the premise of the “Mule” to show how even Hegel’s smug certainty can be spoiled by the random nature of chaos.

This first law is easy to translate into current events. The actions and office George Bush Jr. created the environment that makes Barrack Obama possible. Without Bush’s utter failure I’m fairly certain that the innate bigotry of the American psyche would have ultimately rejected Obama.

The second law maintains that each event represents not only change but progress. I’ve always struggled with this concept; I supposed because I believe that a shift is only progress when I endorse it. Think about it. The election of Obama was an event (I endorse, eh?) But, back tracking a bit, the election of Bush was the catalyst event. And how was it progress? I could point you back to the first law; though I am suspicious that I’d be engaging in circular logic.

The third and final law says that one historical event, or phase, tends to be replaced by its opposite, and later replaced by a resolution of the two extremes. So if Hegel is anywhere near right what we might expect is a softening of Democratic liberalism and essential compromise with the tenants of Republican conservatism. If I hear Obama correctly he has every intention of “reaching across the aisle” to engage the opposition in the process of government.

I don’t pretend to know Hegel, really.  I have always viewed him as an empirical pragmatist. Hegel’s observations have been tested over time and proved true to the extent that they become basis and foundation for historians. They ring true and stay true in testing. That smacks of science.  

 

Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston: BudHouston@earthlink.net. And Check out my new publication the Idea Book – Agility Training for a Small Universe available at www.dogagility.org/store.