Last week I had a large camp full of folks who have trained with me over the years. These camps are always delightful because I don’t have to spend a lot of time on basics but can move on to application, or course strategies. This week I have a camp full of relative novices to my systems and consequently it is all about foundation skills.

I usually begin a camp or any seminar with some kind of standard course with an interesting technical challenge or two. It doesn’t take me long to know precisely where the group needs work. I am not a complacent trainer; that is, I don’t allow my students to play in their comfort zone. I always want to take the next step.

Predicate Skills are the basic building blocks of both the dog training and handler training missions.  

Note: This weblog entry is several weeks old… dating back to a small span of time that I was having difficulty posting to AgilityVision. Consequently the mention of time (“last week” and “this week”) have floated away with the current. I expected that I’d post all of my unpublished log entries. But I find them rather like watching a football game that has already been played. You lose the thrill of the moment. We’ll see if I revive them.  

The Essential Front Cross

This is a simple “there, and back again” sequence. That means you run the sequence in on direction, and then come around and come back. The approach to jump #5 is a bit on the improbable side; but is quite doable.

Essentially this exercise is about beginning a Front Cross with a pulling hand which I have attentively documented in the past (ala the Pulling Hand of Jenny Damm). I do this exercise quite a bit these days because I want the handler to remaster the Front Cross so that the pressure is on the inside shoulder and pulling away, rather than on the outside shoulder and smashing into the dog, which is the most common error with the Front Cross in this country.

I was challenged by my troop of very novice handlers to attend to a variety of predicate skills beyond the simple discussion of the push-and-pull-back riddle. So the exercise soon became more than about the remastered Front Cross. I’ll give you an example or two.

Judicious use of Real Estate

I observe all the time that the game of agility is won and lost in that expanse of real estate between the obstacles that we typically call “the flat”. It is the open space between the obstacles. Not that in this sequence the control position for the handler to make the ungainly approach to jump #5 probably would be at jump #5. So the handler that races to the entry of the pipe tunnel with her dog to get in will probably be woefully out of position on the approach to the jump.

The thing to do here is send the dog on to the performance of the pipe tunnel. Note that this gives the handler about a 20′ advantage in real estate in the relative direction of the course, which is back the other way. Of course there are people who’ve never taken the 20 minutes required to teach the dog to go away to the performance of a pipe tunnel. Some dogs don’t understand the performance if the handler isn’t standing forward pointing into the gaping aperture. It might be good for some just to do some progressive sending drills to show them that the send performance is highly desirable and even rewarding.

I find that a simple “send” is quite a puzzle for a novice handler. I will tell them on this sequence to release the dog from the end of the A-frame. The whole idea is for the handler not to have to run to the entry to the pipe tunnel. Those things that I have to repeat most often are worth noting.

·        Sending has nothing to do with stopping. Shorten stride and keep pressure on the entry to the pipe tunnel. Slamming on the brakes is a good way to draw the dog back into handler focus and spoil the send.

·        You point with your toes to a greater extent than with your arm and hand. So the toes too should be pointing to the entry (and not to the exit) of the pipe tunnel.

·        The handler already has an advantage in real estate by dint of the send. There’s no reason to run away from the tunnel before the dog has actually gained entry.

·        Don’t keep the mission a secret from the dog. Tell him to go get in the tunnel from the dismount of the A-frame.

On the dismount of the pipe tunnel the handler should keep pressure on the dog’s path. I’m frankly surprised by how many training programs fail to include a rich variety of contextual approaches to jumps. I tend to do a lot of around-the-clock work with jumps (and all agility obstacles, frankly) so that the dog understands his basic job without the handler being overly stitched into the fabric of the performance.

In any case in this exercise the handler seeks a control position at the left-most wing of jump #5 in order to pull the dog neatly around the wing without introducing jump #1 as a wrong course. The handler’s movement to position his path keeps perfect pressure on the dog’s path and facilitates basic success in the exercise.

You might wonder why I’d provide such elaborate discussion on fundamental movement that might seem obvious to any of us who’ve been doing agility for any length of time.

Let me put this another way. I’ve never completely understood a handler’s fascination with the exit of the pipe tunnel. The handler’s job is to show the entry… the dog finds the exit all by himself. This is manifested in a variety of manners. Some handler’s will, on the way to the tunnel, break off and run towards the exit before the dog has actually gained entry. Of course this as often as not spoils the entry and has the judge holding a fist in the air. Other handler’s will run to the exit of the pipe tunnel after getting the dog in… as though there was something useful to be done there, camping directly over the dog’s head as he comes out. You’ll note in the drawing above that a handler will find a way to spoil his line of movement (and so the dog’s) and frankly lose whatever advantage in real estate they’d earned for the send.