Clean Run - August 2010 - 35

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Many exercises present challenging approaches to and turns after both the broad jump and the chute. As a warmup to the drills, I work both obstacles around-the-clock so students can practice sends, front and rear crosses, and serpentines with each obstacle. Both the broad jump and chute must be executed without inhibition or limited by specific handling maneuvers. The drills also require advanced handling of sequences containing 270s. All 270s are not created equal. Relative positioning and the distance between both jumps in a 270 affect a dog’s perception of his path. Consequently, these variables also affect the effort required by the handler to commit the dog to the far side of the second jump in a 270. Handling the second jump is also affected by the trajectory traveled by the dog as he enters the 270, and by stride length, foundation skills, and working distance. Given these considerations as well as the variable construct of 270s, to claim that a dog has automatic or independent 270s is a somewhat dubious
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Do a lead-out pivot at #3. Do a front cross between #4 and #5. Use a false turn to pull the dog off the chute; do a front or a rear cross on the takeoff side of #6 to complete the sequence.

proposition. What is really being tested is the handler’s one-jump skill of sending the dog around a refusal plane and committing him to the “back” side of a jump. For this reason, I suggest each 270 be evaluated independently and stress that it is the handler’s responsibility to clearly present and commit the dog to the correct takeoff side of each jump. Sometimes I “draw” the refusal plane of the second jump with a rope on the ground (see the green dashed lines shown in Figure 1) or by adding another 4' jump at low height next to the second jump. Students must handle this jump as if it is another obstacle in the sequence. It turns the 270 into a pinwheel and alerts the handler to the plane to which they must send their dog. Karen Holik’s “City Dogs” article in CR August 2007 is a good reference for training this one-jump skill and teaching the dog not to cross in front of the handler when he is sent to the back side of a jump. First, do the drills in Figures 1 through 9. Finish with the course in Figure 10, which uses many of the skill sets presented in the drills. D
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Start with the dog on your left. Do a front cross between #2 and #3. Use threadle handling between #3 and #4. Do a front cross from #5 to #6, threadle to #7, and complete the sequence with the dog on your left.

Run the entire sequence with the dog on your left. Some dogs may need an arm change to bring them inside the 270 from #8 to #9.

Lead out to the left wing of #2 with the dog on your left. Continue to the weaves with the dog on your left. Let the dog complete the weaves independently as you run to the upright of #6. Do a front cross on the takeoff side of #6; complete the sequence with the dog on your right.

August 10 | Clean Run

Clean Run - August 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - August 2010