Obstacles 1 - 7 were fairly straight forward, ran as you would expect. In my first attempt I wanted to handle 7-8-9-10, from the landing side of #8. I was thinking that this would put me further ahead to get the backside of #11. In order to run from that side you MUST have an independent teeter. Tangle did OK (but did give me the baby dog, what are we doing mom?). Tip however, wanted to come off the side of the teeter to my surprise. I ended up running it from the take off side of #8 as both dogs really wanted the added support. To my surprise, I was still able to get ahead of them so that I could cue the backside of #11. There would be no way to get that if you were behind. It was amazingly hard for the dogs to jump the backside of #11 and go right into the serp. The physical skills are fairly impressive.
The next challenge on the serp (11-12-13) was to handle #13 and get the dog turned to #14. First I tried wrapping Tangle. He read it fine, but wasn't it wasn't fast. I felt like I would loose a ton of time and it is boring for the dog. It took me a couple of tries but I eventually got the rear-cross, wrap to the outside. That was a new skill for Tangle. Once we got it fluid it ran really nicely. Tip is the Queen of the rear cross/wrap to the outside!
14-15-16, the tunnel was not a given, you had to support it and push to it a little. So, depending on how soon the dog committed to the tunnel determined how you were going to handle 17-18-19.
That was a fun little sequence, there were several ways to handle it well. I tried the serp from 16 to 17. The only trick there is you had to be patient until your dog was committed to #17.
Also, with Tangle I was on the take off side of #17, facing him in the tunnel. Then I did the "backy uppy" to get him over #17. He read that like a champ as well.
In all a great little course. I am always going to favor the handling choice that creates the most chase generally speaking. It is fun for me and the dogs.
