Awesome Agility Adventures:Jefferson's Journey: It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Front-Crosses...

Hey, fat man...where's my cookie?

With a little less than two weeks remaining before Christmas break, I knew it was time to take Jefferson to get his annual picture taken with Santa. Although he was not very happy to sit on Santa’s lap, I did persuade him with a few doggie biscuits and some verbal praise…”good boy!” We have had a bit of a down time since our last trial (December 1^st and 2^nd) and have only run a couple sequences and courses.

Mmmm...good!

On Tuesdays before the Intro to Agility class, I have been religiously working on the basics – front cross, sending laterally, and start-line stays. Nothing too very “sexy” agility-wise, but definitely necessary to help us learn to better communicate during our runs. Learning the basics has really begun to pay-off with our performances in class, run-thrus and trials. "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Front Crosses" (sung to the Bing Crosby Christmas Classic below....)

Thursday night, we had a Master’s Level Standard course set-up to run. It had 19 obstacles so we ran the first 10 and then the second half before putting both sections together. I was quite proud of how well both Jefferson and I performed in class.

Here is the course map:

The first thing I have begun to do whenever I walk a course, is to identify what Jefferson sees when he is running. Next, I determine how I will handle the course based on the path I need to steer Jefferson in order to be successful. This has really helped me gain confidence in what I am going to do in order to give clear communication to Jefferson. The first challenge was to execute a front cross between jump #3 and jump #4 in order to take out the off-course A-frame (#7). Since I have been working on increasing my distance from Jefferson, I was able to send him to #3 and get my front cross in so as to avoid the A-frame. This left no decision up to Jefferson – “Yes, I want you to go with me over here and NOT up that A-frame!” It worked like a charm and I was so pleased.

The second challenge for us was smoothly running the sequence #9-13 (weaves-chute-jump-jump-table). Thank goodness Jefferson has independent weave poles so that I was able to send him to the chute and move laterally to front cross the #11 jump after the chute. Whew! It makes me tired just thinking about all that running! But, what a difference it made in our execution of this difficult sequence. By being able to get in a well-placed front cross, I set him up for a straight line to the jumps and table (#11-#13). Yay! What a good boy. Jefferson even stayed “down” on the table. So far, so good….

The last big challenge for us was the last three obstacles –dogwalk (#17) – angled front-side jump(#18) – wrap jump (#19). The reason this was difficult is because Jefferson has a running dogwalk and the best handling move for me was to front cross AFTER the dog walk in order show him the angled jump and wrap to the end. Again, I am fortunate that Jefferson has an independent dogwalk and will perform it without too much needed support from me. I sent him to “Walk-it!” before jump #16 while I hauled tail to make it to the end of the dogwalk to front cross in order direct Jefferson to take #18 in the correct direction. Cha-ching! We did it and was I ever so proud!! Actually, I was more proud of ME for making it to the proper position for the front cross. Front crossing a running dogwalk is no small feat, even for the most agile and lithe handler!

We are really coming together better as team and running more confidently and FASTER! Whew…me going faster is something I really need to WORK on (or should I say…”Work out?!”) Heck, with New Year’s Resolutions quickly approaching, I recognize that I need to get faster in order to better communicate with Jefferson during our runs. I am so glad he is running faster! Bring on the Gatorade and the gym membership!