I set up this course the other day to help work on discrimination's with the dogs. Tip and Split are fairly good with them, but I really haven't worked enough with Tangle. Tangle is really good in following my motion, so if my motion is perfect he doesn't need specific training right?
#1
This course ended up having several challenges that were really fun to work out. The opening 1-5 is fairly straight forward, however there is bar knocking opportunity. I led out to #3 and found that I had to leave almost upon release in order to keep all the bars up. 6 was not a problem if I drove straight in, but if I wanted to leave earlier, I found that I needed more than just motion to get the tunnel. #7! I really want to have the skill to just drive hard and look at that tunnel and the dog follow, not there yet. However, it was fairly easy to get with an outside hand so the dogs would not pass my plane until I released them to the tunnel. Blind cross between 7-8, rear-crossed at 9. 13-14 just be careful to give the dog a good approach t the AF.
#2
Only had to move one jump (#12) for this course. The opening although it seemed kind of dicey when I was setting it up ended up being fairly doable (1-6). I ran with the dog on my left for the entire opening. 7-8 I decided that I wanted to RC #8 and run the outside of the dog walk just to add some additional challenge (and trying to show the dogs different things at the end of the DW). First I tried just scooping the dogs up at the end of the DW, paused after 9 to get them turned into me to hit the #11 tunnel. Turns out they are committed to the #13 tunnel right at #9 and it is very hard to get them turned. Living life with too much uncertainty there! I put a blind cross in between the end of the DW and #9 and drove right into #9, I then peeled out to #11. This got the dog turned and following my motion much better. However to get the #11 tunnel and not the AF proved challenging. Something I need to practice for sure.
11-12-13 was a great moment of learning. I put the restriction ahead of time on #12 that I would have to blind in between 12 and 13. Turns out you would NEVER want to do that. There is NO WAY to cue the dog to take the back side of 12 (even though I used my back side verbal), your motion is just too strong and they run around the jump. You can't turn fast enough to get the side cue done before the dog has to commit. Basically you are twirling and the dog twirls with you--good dog!
As I write this up, it seems that what I learned while running the course were things I should have already known. I strive to get better at recognizing these challenging in advance and making the right choices before I run.
