rocky

Rocky <2dogs@rocky-dog.com> said in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:


OK, here goes - while I haven't seen the final results yet, I've
scanned in the courses and I'll try not to bore y'all with my
self analysis.

You've read the rules, but I should explain the format. We had
six rings for the 450 dogs: Standard, Jumpers, and Gamblers -
duplicated, one for Regular dogs and one for Specials and Vets
which run with a lower AFrame and no spread jumps. One judge
per ring. There were three groups of handlers and dogs which
rotate around the rings which stayed built all day. For
example, on Saturday, Friday and I ran Jumpers, Standard,
Gamblers. On Sunday we ran Gamblers, Standard, Jumpers. The
other two groups ran in different orders. In the long run, it
all works out fairly.

Here are the courses:
http://www.rocky-dog.com/Saskatoon/

On Saturday we began with Jumpers. I started with Friday on my
left, running fairly quickly to my right to avoid a call-off
(which I *hate* doing and won't do in regular trials). I hung
back near the tunnel entrance so he'd know to go from jump 5 to
6. My plan for the 6-7-8 serpentine was to keep Friday on my
left and use directional turns (he can do *very* shallow
serpentines). Unfortunately, I got too far ahead of Friday
between 6 and 7 and he landed behind me coming off of jump 7, so
my directional turn signal sent him over jump 18 (20 faults).
That screwed me up even further so I bobbled the lead change at
jump 9, knocking a bar (5 faults), confusing me as to where I
should go next, put Friday in a down while I pondered the
situation, then continued. Everything else went perfectly:
Friday on my right through jump 10, left on 12 to 20, rear cross
on 21 to bring him over ascending jump 21.

Even with the down-stay, we were a second under SCT. Without my
off-course, we would have scored around 90 instead of 40.

Next was Saturday's Standard. I started with Friday on my
right, no lead-off, sent him over the jump and through tunnel 3
while I hung back. We got to jump 4 at the same time (he was on
my right and I stayed back somewhat to make sure he went into
tunnel 5). This is where I planned wrong. I kept Friday on my
left, crossed behind him to the left side of the frame and
flipped him to tunnel 8 - I thought that this would give me time
to get ahead of him to pull him to me for the tire. I was
wrong. He got ahead of me and incurred a refusal on the tire.
In retrospect, I should have stayed to the right of the frame,
brought him somewhat back towards jump 2 and sent him out to
tunnel 8, giving me a lead-off so that I'd have time to push him
to the tire. (Of course, this situation would have been moot if
I didn't still have to babysit him through AFrame down
contacts.) The rest of the run went well and I ran it like most
everyone else did, though I didn't do a wrap around my body on
the tunnel 18 exit to 19 (in case I sent him over jump 6).
Instead, I did a directional turn to tunnel 19.

With the refusal, we scored 95 out of 100, running under time by
16 seconds - so the refusal cost us at least 21 points.

The final run of Saturday was a Gamble. We got 35 points in the
opening, which is respectable in anything but the Nationals. In
the mini gamble portion, Friday went into the wrong end of the
tunnel (at least I didn't send him to the dogwalk and waste 3 or
so seconds on only 3 points). I *really* blew it on the final
gamble (the 5 jumps in the lower left hand corner): I sent him
over jump 1 into the pinwheel but, instead of callinging "Out
Jump", I said "Friday, Out Jump." Being a good dog, he looked
to me when I saud "Friday" and then back-jumped #1 jump. Good
Friday, bad Matt. Our 35 points in the opening is all we got.

On Sunday, we started with Gamblers. A similar story to the
above, we ended up with 36 points in the opening without getting
a mini gamble because Matt stepped over the line.

Our second Sunday run was Standard. Many handlers started with
a leadout to position themselves for a front cross after jump 3
to aim the dog to tunnel 4. When this worked, it worked well.
Slightly mistimed front crosses resulted in off-courses to the
frame or a run around (and refusal penalty) outside jump 3. I
also saw a number of dogs take ascending spread jump 20 after
tunnel 4 - this seemed to happen when the front cross was
mistimed and, because of the handler's shoulder position and
acceleration towards tunnel entrance 4, the dog thought they
should be going left when leaving the tunnel. I didn't lead out
at the beginning - instead I hung back at the chute exit, sent
Friday out to the jump, and ran towards the spread, pulling him
to the tunnel. I did a shallow rear cross before jump 5 sending
him to the teeter, jump, and dogwalk from a fair distance. A
flip to tunnel 9, momentary handler focus before heading to the
weaves (many fast dogs incurred refusals here when the handlers
charged directly to the weaves). I hung way back after the
weaves and sent Friday to tunnel 11, called jump while he was in
the tunnel, and met him at the frame. Missed the down contact
(5 faults). The approach to tunnel 15 from from jump 14 was a
straight line, so there was no real obstacle discrimination.
Same approach to the weaves as above and then a rear cross on
tunnel 17 - I stayed at the exit to tunnel 18 and flipped him
into the tunnel from there.

22 seconds under time but 5 faults because of the blown contact
so no time bonuses again.

We finished the weekend with a great jumpers course. I led off
to about halfway between the double and tunnel 8 - started
Friday and when he landed after the double (I didn't want to do
a lead change over the double) I took a single step to tunnel 3
and ran on the left of tunnel 8, calling for focus while Friday
was in the tunnel - he never even looked at winged jump 9. The
common mistakes here (with dogs of all speeds) was handling the
opening on the left, many dogs going to the wrong tunnel. Many
handlers who ran between the tunnels and had fast dogs bought
jump 9 unless they did a severe call-off. After tunnel 3, I
hung back in the middle of the 4-5-6-7 jump loop, pulling Friday
into tunnel 8 and then accelerated toward the right side of jump
9. I thought Friday would be way ahead of me at this point, but
I'd hung back too far, so my cross behind jump 9 was too sharp
and I pulled him into a refusal on tunnel 10 - 5 faults. I sent
him into tunnel 10, hung back (keeping him on my right, though
most handlers set up for a front cross after jump 11) and did a
shallow rear cross on jump 13. Hung back again, sending him
into tunnel 16 from a distance, a flip to tunnel 17, met him at
jump 18 for the finish.

Another fast (11 seconds under time) 5 fault run.

So, I'm very happy with our weekend, some very good runs.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

robin nuttall

Okay, hard to tell paper from real life but I'll take a brief stab.

I think on this course I'd do a lead out push, leading to between 1 and
2 and pushing Cala to 2 and along that line. I'd want to get a front
cross in between 5 and 6, then rear cross on the flat between 7 and 8.
She does not do shallow serpentines well because she's not very
laterally flexible. Me pushing her line and doing a RC would help pull
her left. If she's far away she tends to push even farther, so that
would keep her off of 18. The rest of it looks like a huge speed line to
me, it would be just getting her out there and keeping both of us moving.


I think I would have done this but not worried about being ahead.
Instead I would have brought Cala out of the tunnel then flipped her on
the flat either before or after the tire depending on what it walked
like. Fun course, I think I'm going to try both of these Std courses for our class.

That's my temptation looking at it, but it sounds like your way works
better.

Thanks for the update. Very cool stuff. I can see that the Canadian
courses are in some ways less challenging (fewer traps, fewer control
sections) and in some ways more challenging (some real speed trap
issues, etc.) than ours. It's going to be fun to set some of these up!