The USDAA just posted its course design guidelines document on its website. The news post is here. The PDF of the guidelines is available here.

I just took a quick scan through the document and it should be required reading for all of us who design courses for training purposes. Even if practice courses don't have to be "judgeable" they can at least be setup to have similar levels of challenges and provide safe approaches to obstacles.

I hadn't heard the terms divergence and convergence with respect to dog and handler paths before and I think they represent interesting concepts to consider. I usually think of pushing, pulling and crossing a dog's path.

My first thought is convergence/divergence subsume those concepts. But you might converge on a dog's path and Rear Cross [RearCross, LearningRearCross] which turns the dog but doesn't necessarily push on the dog's line (if the side change is what turns the dog). On the other hand you might converge on a dog's path to push them to another obstacle. So maybe convergence and divergence are really just related concepts.

Need a practice course and don't have any ideas? Here's a really easy method that I've used when I get stuck. Take some jump bars by their end and throw them one at a time out onto your practice field. Yup - it's that simple. It varies both the location and orientation of the jump (or other obstacle) in ways you might not have thought of.

Of course common sense applies: look before you throw! Don't get too crazy or you'll hurt someone or break something :^) You can alternate throwing over hand and side arm to get different, surprising results. Also there are no "rules" to this method so feel free to rethrow or remove thrown bars. You want to be certain that the course you create is still safe for the dogs. Look for jumps jumping into the sides of obstacles and remove/adjust the spacing as necessary.

This method works really well for filling in a jumping portion of a course especially if you tend to not vary the rotation of your jumps very much. But there are many different ways you can apply this technique. I usually have some notion of where I want to place the contacts (if any) and or weave poles. I might also want some jumps in specific locations relative to the contacts/weaves. So I'll place those out and then toss the jump bars into the open spaces to set the rest of the jumps.

You can also use a bar to set the start location and/or rotation of non jumps too. Give a bar a toss and use it to set the start of the weaves, A Frame or Dog Walk. I'd recommend you actually move the big equipment into place before throwing too many additional poles so you don't overcrowd the course.

I like to do this from time to time to get out of the practice course design rut. Give it a try when you need a change in your own practice courses.

The Jump Box is a very versatile course element for practice and competition courses. One reason is that its jumps can be used for a number of purposes/challenges. This allows nesting courses for multiple handler experience levels in a single equipment setup. Some challenges supported by this jump layout include the following (diagrammed below):

• 90 degree turns (red path)
• 270 degree [270JumpHandling, 270Jumps] turns (green path)
• Off course jumps
• Two jump Jump Chute (black path)
• Jump Wrap/Pull Through (purple path)
• Around jump (orange path)
• Modified Serpentine [Serpentine, SerpentineHandling] (blue path)
• Modified Threadle [SingleSidedThreadleHandling, MEBThreadleHandling, ThreadleHandling, Threadle] (yellow path)

The diagram above may resemble a London Tube Map, but it still doesn't show all the possible paths. Each path can be rotated 90 degrees as many as three more times to give many possible paths in and out of the jumps. Reversing these paths gives even more permutations.

When included in a course one or more of the jumps can be used as part of other "standard" sequence elements like Pin Wheels (left below) or combined with yet another box (right below) for even more possibilities.

As I mention in my Box definition article:

The arrangement of jumps in the Box can be modified just like any other group of obstacles to provide different handling challenges. Obviously the closer together the jumps the greater the off course potential. The box can be stretched, shrunk or have its jumps slightly rotated. Though as the jumps get further from a square some folks will no longer call it a Box.

Other permutations that might provide handler challenges include:

• Wing jumps can restrict the available handler space/paths.
• Substituting another jump for one of the jumps (e.g. Tire, double, triple, spread/broad).
• Substituting a tunnel or chute (collapsed tunnel) for one or more of the obstacles.
• Removing one of the jumps.
• Rotating one of the jump as much as 90 degrees.

Although some of these changes make the obstacle arrangement no longer strictly a Box they may spark ideas for your next course design. Once you've played around with a Jump Box in a course design you'll find how versatile they can be.

The 270 degree jump sequence is a commonly seen advanced Agility course element. The name comes from the number of degrees in the outside (obtuse) angle between the two jumps. At this time, 270 degrees is the largest angle allowed between two jumps by any Agility organization. The only variations of this course sequence are the distance between the jumps and the types of jumps used (any type of jump can be used). Two 270 degree Jump arrangements are shown below:

From a course design perspective each Agility organization has rules about how many 270 degree jump sequences are allowed in a course. Typically at most two 270s are allowed and only on advanced level courses.

As shown in the second diagram above, the course designer need not limit the dog's path to a basic circle. Any approach angle to the first jump can be combined with any exit angle. These approach and exit angles are what give the handler multiple options for tackling this sequence. Again the sharper the approach/exit angles the more advanced the sequence.

The third diagram shows both "Pull Through" entries and exits for the 270 by bringing the dog between the jumps the difficulty is further increased. It is likely using this type of approach or exit to the 270 would make some competitors unhappy with the judge, but as teams get better and better you might see these types of entrance and exit and even see them combined as courses progress. Whether they appear in trials or not, they are fun to practice.

See Handling 270 Degree Jumps for handling options for this sequence.

The Pin Wheel is a commonly seen Agility course element. It is generally made up of 3-4 jumps arranged so the dog's path is roughly circular. Some classic Pin Wheel jump arrangements are shown below:

Read more ...