BEYOND By Mary Ellen Barry THE BACKYARD © ALEX PREISS This month’s column will focus on threadles. A threadle (also known as a pull-through) is defined as the action of bringing the dog through a gap between two obstacles toward the handler, as shown in Figure 1. Having the skill to perform threadles with your dog is very useful on tight courses and especially in Snooker. Threadles are not legal in the AKC regular classes, but they are allowed in the ISC classes. Regardless of whether this pattern is seen often in competition, it is a great skill to practice to fine-tune your handling. For these exercises, I will use the terms “inside” and “back side” of a jump. The inside of a jump refers to the same side of the jump that the handler is on. The back side refers to the far side of the jump away from the handler. These terms refer to the position of the handler, not the dog as seen in Figure 2. The way that I perform threadles is based on a combination of methods and theories that I have learned over the years. I would like to describe this background so that you may properly understand what you are doing when you execute a threadle. In the Greg Derrett 1 2 Back side Inside Inside Back side 30 Clean Run | September 07