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
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Cut offs – yes, more info please!!! This was a hole in my training, for sure. Well, you saw at the seminar at Lisa Michelon’s (sigh). I had come up with some of these drills and have been working them, but thanks so much for the schematics. It’s great getting the info from you. Best, jennifer & Teague
Nancy: For the running A-frame, is there a specific reason you are only using one of the A-frame boards? Thx – Anne
Using just half of the AF board is an idea I took from watching Sylvia’s flat board training. She uses just the descent plank of the DW, so it makes sense just to use the descent plant of the frame before trying to do the full piece of equipment.
Thanks for the reminder Nancy. I set it up and Fin went into the tunnel the first time, but not after that 🙂 Lots of practice for me!
Ahhh, thanks for the picture of Scoop on the A-frame; I had visualized it bass-ackwards in my mind.
Rob
I have the yellow on the high side of the board, I didn’t want to focus on the contact zone when I watched, I just wanted to watch his running stride. I also like to see his white feet on the red wood, makes it easier to pick out each footfall.
I would love to know if those weave poles are available. They look like the perfect solution for training. I have trouble with being accurate rotating the 2X2’s. These look like they would solve that problem.
Ashey Fischer
Here is an email address for Robert Michelon the manufacturer of the weaves.
michelon@charter.net
They will not work too well indoors as in order to set the angle you need to nail down each end or else the dog could push the angle out of line. Robert might be able to tell you how to crank down the screws at the angle though.
Nancy