Tanner found his joy again at Helen’s! Silly boy. Lori’s course had no tunnel. She was curious to see if the dogs would run faster. That tunnel has been a distraction for most of the dogs for a long time. She thinks it could be due to the Briard’s drool that has a private lesson with her the afternoon prior. He drinks water and then runs amok including through the tunnel, dribbling water everywhere. The dogs could have running with extra enthusiasm due to the weather. She mentioned leaving the tunnel out of this coming Thursday’s classes as well.
Light bulb moment…the blind cross – 4 to 5, for example – supports the jump you’re leaving while giving information where we’re headed next. While a front cross would work, you’re rotating into the dog therefor not getting down the line as fast.
It was fun to play with 9 through 11. Initially I chose to bc between 9 and 10 as did all of my classmates. Another option was blind crossing the landing side of 10. Felt much better!!
The circle course start had lots of options, including starting from either side. Initially I chose to start Edie and Zopa off my left, with a Japanese at #2 for Edie and a German for Zopa. A ffc worked too. The Jaakko made the turn too tight, not setting a good line to the weaves. Another choice was a slingshot start off the right, fc immediately and choose from the options. Or forget the fc and wrap the outside wing of #2, and blind cross. I tried the Japanese with everyone. Edie loves the Japanese. I’m fairly comfortable with them and decided to work on timing that with the rest of my dogs.
5 through 8 was fun to play with too. Initially I chose to bc 5 – 6 and wrap the inside wing of #7. Lori pointed out taking the outside wing of #7 sets a great line through the pinwheel. So, bc 5-6 and then again 6-7. Crap, easier said than done. You had to really, really, REALLY hug the wing at 6.
Friday. Yee haa, as usual. Zopa got to sit out most of her first turn. No surprise to me or Lori, but it was funny to hear ‘new’ classmates comment on how great she ran last week and almost total disengagement this week. Welcome to my world! There were a number of challenges on this course, several not apparent during walk-thru. I chose to fc the landing side of 5 and run the a-frame off my right. The line from 7 through 10 was really fast! It was important to converge on the line from 8 – 10. By then the dogs were getting ahead and wanted to start to turn back towards the handler.
11 -13 had lots of options. Backside send to 11 and serp/run the dog’s line at 12. Blended fc at 12. Two front crosses; 11-12 and 12-13. Out of the tunnel through the teeter…blind cross, but hang back to get a tight turn to the teeter. Rear crossing #14 makes a better turn (unless your dogs don’t have rear crosses in their tool box!).
And then 17 through 20. Yikes that timing was crazy. For all of us. Crazy, crazy. The blind cross has to start exactly!!! on time and then you’d better watch where you’re headed. So easy to get the backside at 19. Without a leadout from the table, a good option was rear crossing #19, step into the gap to support 20. Of course, rear crossing would need to be in one’s toolbox…
Tanner hasn’t been happy lately during Thursday class. He does the sequences but not with joy. He LOVES Friday class…because of big space and contacts. The current exercise/skill for his log is ‘joy’. Zopa’s current exercise/skill is ‘choosing to run’.
