Clean Run - November 2015 - 17

10
11

13
BC

8
BC

As my dog approached #7, I pulled away laterally, looking at him over
my left shoulder. When he landed, I was already moving so he could see
me through the standards of #8. When I saw he was committed, I
switched arms and continued moving toward #9.

Challenge 2
The next sequence that required
some decision-making was from the
#7 jump to the #11 weave poles. Several handlers successfully used a
rear cross on the flat from #8-#9, and
some were able to do a front cross
as well. However, when I walked this
sequence it seemed to perfectly lend
itself to a blind cross.
As my dog approached #7, I pulled
away laterally, keeping my eye on
my dog over my left shoulder. When
he landed, I was already moving so
my dog could see me through the
standards of the #8 jump. I called his
name and looked back at him. When
I saw he was committed, I switched
arms and continued moving toward
#9. As my dog caught up to me, because of his flat angle of approach to
#9, I decelerated sharply and turned
into him with my shoulders, bringing
up my outside arm as I indicated the
jump, as shown in Figure 4.

Challenge 3
Although there are decisions that
have to be made all along the way on
any course, the next, and final, big de-

This option required some foot speed on the part of the handler, and/or the
ability to pull away from the poles as the dog was weaving.

cision to be made was how to accomplish the side change from #16-#17.
Again, I looked at this section, and
instantly thought that a blind cross on
the landing side of #16 seemed logical. This option, shown in Figure 5,
required some foot speed on the part
of the handler, and/or the ability to pull
away from the poles as the dog was
weaving. Being far enough ahead of
the dog, and giving enough forward
motion cues to get the dog to extend
at #14 so that the dog made it out to
#14, was an issue for many. Also, because of the small variation in spacing
and the slight curve of the line, a few
large dogs extended a little too much
and ended up running around #14.
I chose to leave Frodo in the poles
just a bit and headed down the line,
making sure to keep my head back
over my right shoulder and maintain
contact with him. As he committed
to #15, I was pulling away laterally
and moving toward the landing side
of #16. As he landed #15, I called his
name so he would look over toward
me, since my motion supported the
off-course #4 jump. Then, as I saw
that he was committing to #16, I executed a change of side and directed

him to the #17 jump as I moved laterally away to guide him toward the finish of the course.
Several handlers chose to do a rear
cross on the flat from #16-#17, but
this carried with it the risk of sending
the dog over the off-course #6 jump.
Handlers also executed a front cross
on the landing side of #15, but this
proved problematic as it set a line that
made getting the dog to #17 difficult,
as the handlers got stuck behind #16
just a bit and couldn't give enough forward cues to get the dog to #17.
This was a really fun course to run
and had a fast-paced flow. While front
crosses and rear crosses worked for
many handlers, the course seemed
to really be begging for blind crosses,
and they did turn out to work quite
nicely! Can you think of any other
handling options? No need to think
about what they care called, just set
up the smaller sequences from this
course and try moving through them
with your dog.
Many thanks to Paula Ratoza for setting up this course and for letting me
analyze it. D

Daisy Peel has won multiple national and regional championships and has represented the USA in international competition more than 10 times with three different
dogs. Educated as a high school chemistry teacher, Daisy teaches classes and seminars in the USA and worldwide, in person and online. Visit her online classroom:
http://classroom.daisypeel.com.

November 15 | Clean Run

http://classroom.daisypeel.com

Clean Run - November 2015

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