Dana Pike Advanced Class Course - Feb 17 2005
07 Mar 2005
Dana Pike had one of her crafty Jumpers-style courses setup for us this past week. None of the handlers "Q"'d it the first time through (and only a couple the second time). The 16-17-18 and the 19-20-21 jump sequences were particularly challenging.
There is a lot going on in this course. So much so that I’ll just itemize some of the handling approaches and course challenges:
- Front Cross Learning the Front Cross - VideoFront Cross at the end of the weave poles to avoid the off-course tunnel entrance
- Front Cross between jumps 7 and 8 to setup a Post Turn into the weaves
- A Front Cross from jump 10 to jump 11 with the handler staying to the left of jump 11.
- The 11-12-13-14 Pin Wheel was handled universally by staying in the pocket and using Post Turns Learning the Post TurnPost Turn/Shoulder Pull/Pivot Turn.
- From the tunnel it was a foot race to get to the landing side of jump 17. If the handler could pre-cue the Front Cross at jump 17 they could pick the dog up on their right arm as it landed after jump 17. A step forward and a Post Turn then put the dog over jump 18. The tight spacing made the timing critical.
- Handlers signalled a short stride (or pre-cued a Front Cross) prior to jump 19 to get a tight wrap around the jump standard. Most handlers turned the dog to their left around the jump.
- Even if the dog was already on a right Lead Leg before jump 20 a Half Cross was needed between jump 20 and 21 to get the dog on the correct side of jump 21.
- The closing Serpentine Serpentine Handling TechniquesSerpentine Sequence sequence can be handled with the dog on the handler's left through the whole sequence if the handler can run the full distance (the dog's curling back to a lagging handler at jump 24 helps too).
This is definitely a course I’d like to set up and run again. Here’s another challenging sequence Dana devised using the same obstacle setup.
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