cut offs
Don’t cut me off! Our training setup in classes this week has a lot of opportunites to practice go-ons and a lot of opportunites for the dogs to do cut offs. Many instructors discuss why or why not to do blind crosses, but there is not nearly as much discussion about the dog crossing the handlers path in front of them, cutting them off. The deterioration of the dog’s path, curling back to you, and then cutting you off probably happens a lot more often than the dog blind crossing the handler. Dogs should not be allowed to change sides without our specific direction, whether that move is in front of OR behind you. And the cutuff is inherently a lot more dangerous than the blind cross. A the dog cuts in front of you, his life and your knees are at dire risk! My students this week definitely need some help on this issue and I am going to start with dusting my own house first!
Scoop and I are going to do some refresher ground work this week to make sure he understands not to cross my path. Nothing good comes from it, I’ll be on the ground and he will be off course to the closest obstacle if my BIG dog does a CUTOFF. Today we will do some fast circle work with Scoop on the inside and me on the outside of the circle. And soon I will let you know the next step in our anti-cutoff training.
Scoop practiced his 2o2o on the teeter and DW yesterday, I am happy with most of the progress. He has got lots of legs though and a couple times on the teeter as he pushed it down and jumped on from the side, he got a foot tangled under the board. He is pretty straight, but he has a lot of leg to keep under himself. Today I will do more on a stationary board and watch carefully that all four legs are going the same direction before I do my jump on the teeter training.
Here’s a photo of Scoop running the AF board.
And a couple photos of Scoops new weave poles I got from Robert Michelon in Oregon. I love these things!
They can be “bent” into channels of any width, or straightened out to make a set of regular poles.
I hope you are having as much fun weaving and framing with your pup as I am having with mine!
NJG