Can You Handle It? Novice & Intermediate Courses
10 Jun 2012
I gave my first Novice and Intermediate level Can You Handle It? Seminar this past Friday night at Agility at the Farm. It was challenging to fit a day’s worth of handling discussion and practice into only three hours, but I kept it to key points and we discussed and practiced as things came up. It was a good group, enthusiastic and game to try new things. There were a lot of cool dogs too! Even though we started at 7:00 PM I think they were still willing to keep training at 10:30 when we wrapped up. When I’m coaching I can keep going as long as folks are interested - I get a real kick out of it.
I knew I’d have teams with a range of skills so I came up with intermediate courses and planned on breaking them down for the less experienced and working on precise handling for the more experienced. Julia, who organized the event, called these “Goldilocks courses”, not too hard, not too easy - hopefully just right; I love her description.
So here are my courses - you can come up with tons more variations on this layout!
Some handling suggestions:
- Lead Out or Front Cross Jump Wrap 1 to 2.
- Either:
- Rear Cross Learning the Rear CrossRear Cross on the take off of 4 and again before 5
- Front Cross Learning the Front Cross - VideoFront Cross or Blind Cross 2-3 to pickup dog on handler's left. Run like hell to get Front Cross between 4 and 5
- Front Cross 7-8
- Shoulder Pull Learning the Post TurnPost Turn/Shoulder Pull/Pivot Turn 8-9-10
- Front Cross 10-11
- Single Sided Serpentine 12-14
- Push to back side Handling the Quad Back Side - Patrick Bucher Course/VideoThe Connection Between Threadles and Back SidesBack Side/Back Side JumpBack Side of Jump Handling Combinations - Video of 15
Here is a faster running second course:
For this course I was really focusing on handlers getting into position at speed and keeping moving through their crosses. Some handling ideas:
- Front Cross 2-3
- Dog on right 3-7
- Front Cross 7-8
- Cue Jump Wrap 8-9 (could Ketschker)
- Shoulder Pull dog on left 9-12
- Options for the closing line:
- Front/Blind Cross tunnel exit - dog on right coming out of tunnel - Front Cross 14-15
- Dog on left coming out of tunnel - Front Cross or Rear Cross 13-14
I hope you play with these courses!
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