At a local trial recently agility competitors were presented with an unusual and challenging approach the weave poles in the opening of a Jumpers course. I’ll call this the Du Bois Opening though the sound of it has greater poetry in it than the carnage that ensued on the assault of the puzzle.

We set up a variation of this in training to give us a laboratory for working through the solution of the problem. Out of the pinwheel the dummy-jump (being #3 in reverse) looms so mightily on the mind of the handler that most will draw the dog as severely as possible thereby spoiling the approach to the onside entry to the weave poles. Some dogs who actually gained the correct entry managed to miss the first turn because a too perpendicular approach must be corrected.

My own approach was to attack the dummy jump with some impunity using a static Post to wrap my dog around me tightly getting as square an approach to the weave poles as can be. It is also my inclination to create energy and acceleration in a pinwheel. So in this sequence imagine that I make the presentation of jump #4 with dog on right to use a Tandem to accelerate my dog through the pinwheel. Most handlers are inclined to suck energy out of the team in a pinwheel by parking lazily in the center.

In the final analysis there’s no real substitute for the dog understanding the performance of the weave poles down to, and including, the entry so that the handler does not have to labor to create an approach.

Oh, in case your were wondering… out of the performance of the weave poles the course required a dramatic right turn to the triple, so the handler likely wanted dog on left through the performance. This course is the product of the AKC program; a source of constant entertainment. I don’t much approve of setting a dummy jump on the imputed corner of approach to any obstacle. But ours is not to reason why. We train for ugly because that’s the rage and demand in the real world.  

Note to Dave, President of Boingo

Dear Dave,

I am familiar with boingo, and have used it from time to time.

I am distressed by credit card charges that are repeated without my permission. Though I guess in the tricky world of internet credit card manipulation I probably agreed to something when I clicked a button.

In the long run the internet will get cheaper and cheaper even to the traveler who has little recourse but to apply to a "pay" service. But I will remember, and I hope many people will remember, those companies that exploited us when we were out traveling in the world.

Hey... great point! I think I'll put it in my blog.

Regards,
Bud Houston 

You Broke the Ship! You Broke the Bloody Ship!

 - Dr. Lazarus, Galaxy Quest

America has rebounded from terrible calamity and disaster in the past. I expect that there is no great outcry against the crimes of the Bush administration today because many of us are silly optimists. And somewhere in the back of our minds we believe that that we can even survive this, our greatest disaster… the Bush Administration. George Bush has set our accounts back by somewhat more than three trillion dollars. I’m hard pressed to believe that we are going to survive this. Terrible times are coming.  

The Crofton Dismount

I have an interesting course-ending to share with you. This dismount of a Jumpers course comes from a recent local AKC trial. What an Interesting course! The first 18 obstacles are a lovely flowing smooth romp. And then, suddenly, it’s like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown, your trust and cheer in a sublime moment is met with a cruel twist.

 

In the pinwheel turn through jumps #17 and #18 the handler must draw the dog short of the wrong-course option out to jump #14. Of course this sweetens the possibility of a wrong course over jump #16 after jump #19. This is just delicious eh? I’ve invested a lot of training hours in teaching my young dogs to “own the pinwheel”… this is a real difficulty when the pinwheel doesn’t actually belong to us.

My instinct would be to create a corner of approach on the takeoff side of jump #19 that nicely lines up #19 and the tire at #20. This calls for a good squaring Front Cross (while still avoiding the #14 dummy, probably with a quick little RFP). I’ll set this one up in the training center next week. 

Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston: dogwoodbud1@earthlink.net. And Checkout my new publication the Idea Book – Agility Training for a Small Universe available at www.dogagility.org/store.