Excellent JWW Course Set-Up Sunday Night

Last night Sheryl and I met at the field at 7:30 to set up the below XJWW course. It was my first time ever to set up an entire course from a map. Whew! It was a lot of work! We didn't finish until about 9:15, then spent 30 minutes or so running Maxie, Lucky and Charlie. We were both sweating buckets. I gained a whole new appreciation of the people in our club who set up courses each week, believe me!

I saw this course run by several people last Saturday, in Hattiesburg. Very few Q'd. A surprising # of D's had trouble at 4, which looks so simple to handle with an OUT command. Due to wide spacing between obstacles and 3 long tunnels, you either have to run a lot to reach the back side, or handle from a distance. The course below shows what I think the judge might have intended to test for -- distance handling. Because without that skill, there is almost always an obstacle in your way to run wide of, or you have to run right alongside your dog all around the course -- a long run.

I intend to go out this week and practice this, in segments and with touch targets if necessary, to get Maxie used to "going out" away from me. No way we would have Q'd in a real trial on this one. We made 4 but he missed 5, 6 and 7 unless I ran right beside him. He screwed up going OUT to 10, and didn't even see 11 (I didn't support it). I was surprised, though, that he had no trouble with 14 and 15, and going thru all 3 tunnels in sequence and over the finish line at 19, with me staying behind the turquoise lines. Lucky ran the course, too, just for fun, with many treats. She did the whole course, in segments, but was far more interested in the cat on the field.

Sheryl and I divided the course up into trouble spots (5-7; 9-13; 15-19) to practice separately, with a target moved around from just past 6 to just past 7 to encourage go outs.  Each one could be handled from greater and greater distances as D gains confidence.

That's my take on it anyway.  We'll see how it goes next week.

Sun's coming out after a horrible thunder storm late last night.  I may get in some back yard practice a little later on.  However, Maxie and Lucky are both zonked.  Hattiesburg trip, and last night, wore them out.  I'm a bit worn out myself.

Monday Night "Competitive Handling" 8/16

Everyone who showed up last night is going to the Hattiesburg trial this weekend, (Nedra, Georgie, Noel, Loralie, Sandy, Michele S., Lisa), most of them for 4 days, so excitement was in the air.  Except for me, that is.  Why aren't I going?  Well, I'm going to drive up on Saturday, just to bring Lucky and get her used to the trialing environment, but I didn't enter Maxie in the trial.  Now I'm doubting my decision.  They say it's the last indoor air conditioned nearby trial scheduled for this year -- Gulfport and Kiln are outdoors.   On the other hand, I just don't feel Maxie and I are ready to compete at Excellent level.  A few more months of training under our belt is what I think we need.  So far, I disagree with everyone else's philosophy that "trialing is training".  It is, but not as a substitute for proofing your team's issues at home.

Maxie's issues:  solid weaves, focus, speed, working at a distance.
My issues: clear commands and body language, stress reduction techniques, being able to function in the morning, and remembering the course as I run it.

The course we ran tonight is below, which Nedra, Polly and I had set up on Saturday night.  It was relatively simple, with a few interesting twists! In 3-4 places, there is an obstacle in the way of H's most likely path.  It took extra thought for H not to flip over the table or crash into the jumps. (Examples: going from 2 to 4, 9 is in the way; from 9 to 11, 4 is in the way; from 19 to 20, 7 is in the way, and then there is that weird un-numbered turquoise jump - put there no doubt for aggrevation!).  A trap, they call it, and many of the dogs out last night took it -- a Wrong Course fault that automatically disqualifies your run!

Also, a few dogs overshot the table due to that sharp left turn out of the chute, so H needed to position themselves BEHIND the table to prevent that.  That was unusual.  And also not call D to you until they were exiting the chute, otherwise they could veer left too soon and get tangled in the fabric.  Tricky!

Sheryl was there observing, and we got to see first hand the value of the Lead Out Pivot after 2.  H's who didn't do that arm change had harder time getting D to execute a 90 degree left to make it over 3.  Like Susan Garret preaches, an arm change means a change of line.  No arm change means go straight.

For some, the RC after 14 worked.  Others did the FC after 15 (green).  Both seemed to work.

I had run 1-9 with Maxie on Saturday night after setup, and 1-6 with Lucky. They both did well, although Lucky was distracted by a black/white cat sitting over by the gate. She stayed on her start line and didn't run after it, but she kept looking at it and missed my first cue. We have to practice a lot on her focus.

I brought both Lucky and Maxie with me tonight, arriving before 7:30 for the 8 p.m. class, and ran Lucky thru the entire sequence, in steps (1-6, 1-9, 9-15, 16-20), before class began, and again after class.  It was cooler out and she was more energetic than previous weeks, more focused, and faster.  Unfortunately, she spent class time cooped up in the car because she wouldn't stay quiet chained to the fence.

Maxie did very well the first 2 times through, but then we had already run the course.  On his 3rd turn, he started shaking his head and scratching his ear, and wouldn't quit, and wouldn't run.  Just sat on the start line shaking his head.  One more thing that can screw you up in a trial.  Fleas.  Ear mites.  A stray cat.  A bird in the rafters.  I treated all the dogs for ear mites as soon as we got home.

As earlier stated, I created this diagram with my Clean Run Course Designer, which I am still learning to use. I discovered, futzing around with the program, that you can choose "connect the numbers" for D's path and H's path, and the lines draw automatically. Afterwards you can adjust them to suit yourself. This saves lots of time from hand drawing each path.

I also discovered you can add a label to the handler automatically (LOP, RC), rather than a separate text box. Neat!

Sandra R. asked me why I had missed her last Wed night class.  I explained how I had pulled Lucky out after the first class and applied the fees to field fees, and hadn't Loralie told her?  She said NO.  I was surprised.  It seems there is a lack of communications there.