Thursday's practice was a course courtesy of AgilityNerd. My training partner made some adjustments because she had only one tunnel and no tire so we had a teeter in place of the #13 tunnel. Also we turned the threadle at 7-8-9 on Exercise 2 into a serp because I was more interested in practicing serp's. We took a few other liberties here and there and made up a third exercise. The video starts with Exercise 2 then goes to Exercise 1 then goes to our made up course. I'm not going to try to replicate the course map, the modifications we made should be obvious from the video.
I broke up the course into smaller sequences to work on the stuff I had issues with. The video is heavily edited, I figured over 5 minutes of handling exercises was too much for anyone to bear, including me, so I put together a sampling of how it all went.
In short I found a front cross after the 7-8-9 serp/threadle (we did it both ways) worked better than a rear cross on the flat between 9 and 10. I wish I'd taken a little more time to handle 12-13-14 in Exercise 2 as a serp. I tried it once and it went horribly wrong and felt awkward so I put in a front cross after the #12 teeter and then a rear between 13 and 14 and that worked no problem. I have a bad habit of turning into the dog on the serp to get him to turn and come into me and I'm trying to break it. I try to handle most serps with a cross somewhere if I can but sometimes it makes sense to handle it all on one side so I need to practice it.
The send from the A-frame to the #7 jump was a challenge for Strummer as well and it proved important for 7-10 because if I stepped in too far to get the #7 jump then I was too far behind to handle the serp and get the front cross in between 9 and 10. Eventually he got patterned to it but those sends are a continual weakness and I'm forever working on them. He's come a long way but we have a ways to go.
The tight course was fun for a change, we've been doing more open courses that require running because we both have a DOCNA trial coming up. Thanks to AgilityNerd for a fun, Nerdful morning of agility.
Dang, those look like some tricky sequences. You guys handled them great though. Strummer seems up to any challenge -- life's a game, eh!
ReplyDeleteHi Elayne,
ReplyDeleteGood to see you running that setup! Your set up looks tighter than in my class so that made it trickier in some ways... you did a nice job.
In the opening on the first exercise I would have loved to see you front cross over the jump instead of shoulder pull to the tunnel. You are fit and healthy - I'm sure you could do it! It would keep you moving more, ahead of Strummer and show him the line. He looks like a fun dog to run!
I think I did try a front at least once, just didn't post video of it. I rejected the front but I can't remember why, I'm guessing maybe he had a bar down but of course that's a training/timing issue. We were confined to the limits of my training partner's yard so that made the course tighter which changes things. Maybe with a bit more space between obstacles the front would have been better. I think our tunnel was closer so not as much chance of him losing his line. And I gave him a verbal 'tunnel' cue after the #3 jump so he was committed to the tunnel before he even took the #4 jump. In any case I should have tried it at least another time or two because for some reason it was a weakness. But then again there were no lack of challenges to work on with the rest of the course. ;-)
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