Clean Run - January 2018 - 49

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If the handler was late giving the right turn cue, the
dogs would read it as a rear cross and turn left at #4.

The last general course design aspect
of this course is very unusual. We are
taught to "engage" the support poles
with either jumps or tunnels. This is
basically placing a wing jump next to a
support pole making it part of the wing,
so the handler or dog does not run into
the pole. I believe this is the only course
I have ever designed that I did not engage any poles, yet they were not in the
handler's path.
I decided I was going to start things off
with a bang in the opening sequence, #1#6, which is shown in Figure 2-no tricky
off-courses to negotiate, no twisting and
turning. Let's test your start-line stay and
get you and your dog moving and motivated, then a little test at the end of the
straight line getting to #4 and turning
back to #5. As I expected, #3-#4-#5 was
the spot that caused the most problems.
I anticipated the majority of handlers
would lead out past #2, release the dog,
power up toward the #4 jump, throw
some deceleration in before #4, and then
turn and pull the dogs to #5. Next would
be a pull to #5 and a pull to the A-frame
if the handler chose to be on the right
January 18 | Clean Run

Many handlers did a front cross before the table, but most
could not get there in time and got a wide turn from #7 to #8 or
even a near off-course at the teeter. A few handlers turned
their dogs right at #7 and got a nice tight turn to the table.

side of the A-frame. If the handler wanted to be on the left side of the A-frame,
then some type of cross after #5 would
work well. Now what really happened?
With a lead-out to #2 or farther, it was
easy for handlers to get up into the pocket of the three jumps and the A-frame.
But this is where subtle handling of the
dog made all the difference. As the dog
comes over #3, he sees the A-frame on
his left but his handler is on the right.
Most handlers called their dog to keep
him from going toward the A-frame and
then decelerated and pulled the dog to
#4. The challenge for some was cuing the
right turn at #4. If the handler did not give
the turn cue on time, many dogs read a
rear cross at #4; they turned left as shown
by the orange path in Figure 2 and came
back to the front of the jump, earning a
fault. Other dogs that turned left at #4
didn't come around the jump but instead
turned around and backjumped #4. A
few dogs came into their handlers between #4 and #5. The majority of those
who successfully got to jump #5 did a
front cross before the A-frame to be on
the left side on approach to that obstacle.

Figure 3 shows the second section of
the course, #7 through #12. This turned
out to be a very interesting section. It
was actually handled a little differently
from what I envisioned, but it was obvious why, as it unfolded. My intention
for #6-#8 was to allow the handler to
choose which side of the A-frame to be
on, which in turn gave the handler the
option of whether to turn left or right
from #7 to the table at #8. While some
handlers did choose to go to the right
over #7 to the table, about nine out of
ten went to the left. Why? One of the
factors was that the ring barrier itself,
solid concrete walls from floor to ceiling,
can be a little intimidating to both dog
and handler, even though the majority
of teams are quite familiar with the facility. The turn to the right was also easier
if you could get out ahead of your dog
at #7, but this was not easy to do. However, there were some outstanding and
fast turns at #7 for those who could execute the turn to the right at #7. But the
vast majority of dogs turned to the left
over #7, with the handlers choosing to
perform a front cross to get the dog on
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - January 2018
