Foundation Work

Just open up any Clean Run magazine to find articles on "Foundation". All are about foundation for the dog. What about the handler?

I had an interesting conversation with my friend, Gail, this weekend about handling. We came to the same conclusion: Everything we needed to know about handling we learned growing up playing basketball.

Here are some basketball skills:
Pivoting
Passing
Running
Stopping
Working as a team
Reading body language
Hand/eye coordination

These are all important agility skills!

• In basketball, you always know where the ball is, but use your peripheral vision for movement from other players.
• In agility, you keep your eye on the dog.

• When you get the basketball, you either dribble, pivot, or shoot.
• Is a pivot any different than a front cross? No!

• Is passing or shooting a basketball any different than sending your dog out to an obstacle? No!

• Basketball is a lot of stop and go movement. Can you say "acceleration" and "deceleration"? I knew you could!

When I played basketball, I learned how to use my peripheral vision, see what was around me, and anticipate "things", like other players cutting through the lane, the recipient of the pass (since the passer usually looks at the recipient), who is going to shoot, etc. I do the same thing in agility. I walk a course. I see what my dog may see at each obstacle. I know if I twitch, my dog may react to the twitch by popping weaves or pulling off a jump. Yet most handlers blame the dog!

As a handler you are both the coach and a player. You guide your dog through the play. It is your job to anticipate the off-course potential. You send your dog on in gamblers. You snake your dog though a snooker. And you do this without flailing your arms and screaming.

It may be worth having a handler foundation class on a basketball court. A few bonks in the head by a basketball (trust me, it hurts), may be what some people need to get into the game.

Now this is a good Snooker

The following course is Tammi Stone's, ran at Happy Dog Agility on March 7, 2010.



Here's why I like it:

1. Three OF Four. Handlers must pay attention to the details.
2. The #7 Combo must be taken as marked.
3. The #7 Combo is NOT easy to handle.

Sure, you could go for all sevens - some people did. Most were not successful.

As for flow, the ONLY option I liked to enter #2 nicely into the closing was the #7 combo. There are two reds on the map (bottom reds) that open to either nothing, or no points. If you started with Red #2 (bottom right), it opened to some small points. I try to only do fives, sizes and sevens in 3-Red snooker. I discounted that strategy.

Other than all sevens or starting with a low value obstacle, I saw only one flow course with points: 6-6-7.
It was flow enough for both dogs to win their jump heights.

USDAA Performance Titles

Here's an excellent blog entry about the title names for USDAA's Performance program.

http://agilepooch.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/wackronyms-time-for-usdaa-to-join-us/

Good Dog Agility - Team Gamblers

Uh, yeah. There was a nice, steady rain the evening before, and the ring was muddy. Judge Martin Gadsby changed the obstacles locations. The rules were as follows:

1. Same opening and closing times.
2. Closing points are doubled if you cross the finish jump before the buzzer.
3. Back-to-Back contacts ok
4. No consecutive contacts (e.g. teeter to A-frame)

Hey! A straight time gamble!

Normally, I'd go for 16-17 magic points in a 30-second opening with Scout. However, given the MUD (and she slid out of a tunnel in snooker on her belly), I thought 15 was more fair. It was a 1-3-5-7 system with no 7-point obstacle, no consecutive contacts, back-to-back contacts okay. When you watch the video, you'll find that the teeter is near the finish jump. The teeter was an ideal obstacle to take twice and get the heck out because of this, and it was worth 20 points (5 pts x taken twice x multiplier of 2 for closing). This video demonstrates a PERFECTLY TIMED gamble using magic points (point-time estimation).


This was a 4th place and LAA Q run.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Okay, so everyone loses interest in things.  It happens.  To everyone. 

I lost interest in some agility venues. 

For the most part, I have been quiet about my displeasure, and just slowly faded off into the sunset.  I owe no one any reasons.   I just stated that I am not interested.  End of story, right?

WRONG! 

I have made up my mind:  you cannot polish a turd - it will always be a turd.  Yet, in the small world of agility, I still have people cornering me,  droning on about how great venues are in which I hold no obvious interest.  Unless I have vested interest (READ: I own stock or have other financial incentive), I have no loyalty to much of anything.  Your venue doesn't love you - just your checkbook.  So what is the motive for people without any incentive to try and get me to rejoin the cult?

I just don't get it.  Please, just be respectful of others, okay?

Busy

I've got a couple of things going on right now:

• Trial Secretary business for SWAT
• Old Dinosaur Cake for a friend's 50th Birthday Party

I have some upcoming trials, and I hope to get my video camera out for some strategic runs.

If you have nothing nice to say...

I have two dogs, both are rescues from animal control.  I love them to pieces.

What irritates the hell out of me are people who are such losers that the denigrate my dogs.

Every dog, whether rescued or purchased as a puppy, has a set of challenges.  My challenges including fixing issues that some asshole created.  Scout has "space issues" - she doesn't enjoy the company of 99% of other dogs, and will react to that 99% 100% of the time.  I manage these issues, and most people do not realize that there is one.

At Good Dog Agility's trial this past weekend, they have a Parade of Veterans for dogs 8 years of age or older.  At the end of the parade, an award is presented to a dog that:

1. Contributes to the community
2. and/or has overcome some issue

There is a point system for the award that includes the essay for the above, and points for accumulated standard qualifying runs and titles earned.  Most of the award is purely mathematical.  The essay, of course, is subjective.

Scout won the award in 2009.  It was especially sweet since she was tossed from the club.   The 2010 winner was rescued as a puppy and performs community service by visiting nursing homes and hospitals.

There was one VERY sore loser.  This loser has stated before, at USDAA trials, in front of others, that "all rescue dogs deserve to be euthanized" and that "all rescue dogs have issues."  Loser here has two purebred, purchased-as-puppy dogs.  Loser entered the older one in the contest.  Loser was convinced that you HAD to have a rescue dog to win.

Not true.  The 2008 winner was a purebred, purchased-as-a-puppy that went deaf.

Loser's older dog makes Scout look like a saint most of the time. Loser's dog has attacked and drawn blood on at least one other dog.

My dogs:

• I never had the opportunity to meet the parents and see their temperament
• I have never seen the pedigree
• I have no idea if the parents were healthy or have any known genetic defects for which there are tests
• I risked having to fix problems someone else created

Loser's Dogs:

• Loser was able to meet the parents and the breeder and preview temperament
• Loser can view the pedigree
• Loser has documentation as to potential genetic defects
• Loser had the opportunity to create the dog she wanted

Notice any differences?  Loser got a puppy and had every opportunity in the world to shape the dog's behaviors and attitude as she saw fit, yet Loser chose to create a nasty one, perhaps in her own likeness.  The only reasonable thing Loser did was not make HER mistake the problem for someone like me. Despite having the potential to create a well-rounded dog, Loser chose to create a "dog with issues", overcame the issues SHE created, and still expects to be rewarded for it?

I FIXED two dogs that someone like Loser ruined.  I don't expect to be rewarded externally for it.  My reward is the love I get from these two critters of mine.

Flow is Helpful. Somtimes, It Wins.

Here is Judge Karen Gloor's Masters Snooker course from Driven Dogs on Janurary 29, 2010.



It's four reds (more strategic), with two combos, #5 and #7. My older dog, Scout, will either retire or semi-retire this year. I am no longer going for Top Ten, which she has been in for the past two years. My little guy, Bug, typically gets the same course as his sister because it's easiest one me, though I have been known to run different courses. This time, I chose the same course.

At first I thought I liked the #5 combo. It turns out I didn't, as it covers a lot of yardage. I avoided the #7 combo: jump, weaves, jump. 7c opens to the 5a tunnel. 7a, heading north, opens to the 5a tunnel. 7b heading north opens to the 5a tunnel. See a pattern?

I considered starting out with 1-6 and 1-6. While time was on my side (50-something seconds for jumpers with weaves), I chose something nice for my dogs. It was not a high-point course.

I chose, starting from the left, 1-3, 1-3, 1-5 and 1-4. I ran the outside of the 5a tunnel to get to #4. Combo #7 and #4 were the best entries into the closing.

Most people bit it in the opening, handling the #7 combo. When I said that the combo opened to tunnels, the dogs took the tunnel. Heck, Bug took the tunnel in the closing.

Magic Points: Video Example

This is Lisa Jarvis's Masters Gamblers course at Agility Club of San Diego in January. This post is not about the gamble - it's about the opening.



I filmed several dogs with the intent of showing point-time estimation, aka Magic Points. I filmed Performance dogs, so please don't snort at them. Most of these dogs are older but still have the spunk and desire to play.

Most medium to fast dogs need 15-20 magic points in a 30 second opening. I was unable to add the magic point text to the clips.

When you watch these dogs and see how I counted the magic points, you'll understand why it is often better to avoid the high-point obstacle.


Chute: 1
Jump: 1
Teeter: 2.5 (Most dogs are about a 2 on the teeter)
Jump: 1
Dogwalk: 4
Dogwalk: 4
Tunnel: 1
Jump: 1
Jump: 1
TOTAL MP for 30sec opening: 16.5


Chute: 1
Jump: 1
Teeter: 2
Jump: 1
Dogwalk: 3
Tunnel: 2 (It's a 20' tunnel more than 20' from the dogwalk)
Dogwalk: 3
Tunnel: 1
A-Frame: 2
TOTAL MP for 30sec opening: 16


Chute: 1
Jump: 1
Teeter: 2
Jump: 1
Dogwalk: 3
Messing around after dogwalk: 1
Dogwalk: 3
Tunnel: 1
Tunnel: 1
Tunnel: 2 (Consider the distance between the tunnel under the dogwalk to the one in the corner)
Tunnel: 1
TOTAL MP for 30sec opening: 17


Chute: 1
Jump: 1
Chute: 2 (obstacle completion plus time to get there)
Jump: 1
Teeter: 2
Teeter: 3 (obstacle completion plus time to get there)
Jump: 1
Dogwalk: 3
Tunnel: 1
Tunnel: 1
A-Frame: 2
A-Frame: 2
TOTAL MP for 30sec opening: 20



Chute: 1
Jump: 1
Teeter: 2.5
Jump: 1
Dogwalk: 4
Dogwalk: 4
Tunnel: 1
A-Frame: 2
Jump: 1
Jump: 1
TOTAL MP for 30sec opening: 18.5

The Case Against the Dogwalk
I have one dog that is about a 3 on the dogwalk and one that is a 4. For the same seven points, I can do two tunnels and a jump (look at the tunnel under the dogwalk!) for the same points and 3 magic points instead of 4. Add an extra jump in the mix, and I have 8 points in the same amount of time I can do the dogwalk and get 7 points.