As Katrin mentioned in her comment in the previous post, the entire lesson was about attempting to view the course from your dog's perspective and how that perspective should inform your handling decisions. This is why the theory of arcs works for a dog - if you are in a stay behind the left wing of the first jump, and your handler is out by the 3rd jump, well duh why would you even consider the tunnel? Dog-sense.
6 comments:
Whine, I like Julie's red tunnel so much better..... And her wing jumps are all that more stylish....stupid CRCD.....
Another instructor note- It's not so much momentum that would get the dog to arc in this case, but more handler position. Because there is the solid wall along the right side of the arena, when you set your dog up facing that wall in front of the 1st wing jump, he is going to be inclined to look in your direction as he jumps, there by turning to the left and now seeing the non wing #3 jump, which other wise was invisible to him.
More instructor babbling- It is also very important to recognize the imapct that wings can and do have on the visual your dog sees. They are very much like tunnels in that they block your dog's perifrial vision. If the 1st 2 jumps had been non-wings, your dog should have more easily seen the #3 non-wing jump. But I purposfully set the 1st 2 wing jumps to only frame the tunnel (and they are on the larger side for what is allowable for wing width and height in competition, still legal though), meaning it was the HANDLER'S 110% responsibility to give their dog ample opportunity to see and take the #3 jump. Other wise it would just involve a lot of fruitless screaming and hand flapping trying to get the dog to not take the tunnel at the last second.
Well, you instructed us well last night because all of our dogs were able to do this successfully!
And I admit to doing some deep breathing - like most dogs, Ike digs tunnels!
I think Sandy was most blown away with Mr Baxter Black. She just cracks me up but is terrific! As is B, the labradorable. I would take that dog in a heart beat (eeek, did I just say that about a LAB??!!)
Sandy and Baxter are great. Ike & I agree!!
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