Clean Run - September 2014 - 27

3
8
11
7

10
9

3
6

It is the nature of the cluster that the dog will have several
1
off-course options upon entry. Adding the long jump as shown
creates a second cluster.
It is the nature of the cluster that the dog will have several
off-course options upon entry. Adding the long jump as shown
creates a second cluster.

It's worth noting that the reason judges
use clusters is not only to create amazing handling challenges; the use of clusters contributes to minimizing the reuse
of obstacles, and I very much wanted
to finish this design without repeating
any obstacle. That's a very European notion. I'm afraid that repeating obstacles
is completely ingrained in my psyche as
I often have to design full course work
for a 60' by 100' area (the size of my
training building). Repeating obstacles
is the secret for designing courses in a
small space. However, the Masters Challenge classes follow a European standard
which minimizes the repetition of obstacles to maintain fairness of scoring. If
a jump is taken three times and the dog
drops the bar on the first pass, then you
have eliminated the possibility that the
dog might drop the bar on the second
pass, and maybe on the third as well. In
addition, the downed bar may get reset
correctly for one dog, but not another.

September 14

| Clean Run

The handler must pull the dog between two jumps to make the
backside approach to #9. Then the sequence "threadles" to jump
#10, with the #8 jump offering an off-course option.

I wanted to do something fun with the
cluster. Jump #4 has the dog wrapping
back into the cluster in a 270° turn, as
you see in Figure 2. It is the nature of the
cluster that the dog will have several offcourse options upon entry. The handler
is compelled to be specific in the presentation of the correct option.
I positioned the long jump so that a second cluster was formed on the course as
you can see by the green shaded area in
Figure 3.
At this point I went through a variety of
design ideas about how to get the dog
back into the cluster. I settled on the
tough and technical handling sequence
shown in Figure 3. After jump #8 there
is a threadle, which is also called a pullthrough or push-through. The handler
must neatly pull the dog between two
perfectly good obstacles, both of which
are off-course choices, to make the backside approach to jump #9.

After jump #9, the sequence threadles to
jump #10, with the #8 jump offering an
off-course option to the dog.
The long transition to the weave poles at
a negative angle of approach should have
handlers calculating whether they should
shape the approach or not, and how
much they'll have to shape, if they do.
I'm sorry that I was not able to finish
this Jumpers course without repeating
an obstacle. I'm sure I could have stuck
some more stuff out there, but it would
have made the course more crowded and
probably would have added technical
challenge to a course that was doing just
fine on technical challenge.
The bit I really wanted to play with on this
course is the interesting threadle after jump
#13 that has the long, skip-a-jump transition to jump #14. As with the approach
to the weave poles, you can expect these
long transitions in the Masters Challenge.

Clean Run - September 2014

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