Courses - Clovis NM Sat 6/19/10

Today's Excellent Standard course had a few challenges right from the start - namely the #2 winged jump.

This jump was not centered between the tunnel and dog walk so handlers needed to be aware of their dog's path, speed and plan how they were going to get around this obstacle. Some handlers went down the left side of the dog walk, while others had their dog on their left when they exited the tunnel and had to work hard to get to the landing side of the jump.

A few inventive handlers set their dog up facing the #1 tunnel entrance and then 'led out' (or back in this case) to the landing side of the #2 jump. They had obviously practiced this because once released and pushed, the dogs went confidently into the tunnel and then came back over the jump.

After the dog walk, again dogs had great weaves. Heading toward the teeter, most handlers kept their dog on their left. Other options included handlers doing a rear cross at the teeter and a few did a front cross prior the teeter. Several dogs went to the off-course jump prior to the #7 tunnel since that was the first obstacle in their view.

After the tunnel, dogs easily performed the #8 through 12 sequence with only one or two dogs going into the off-course tunnel after #8.

After landing after the #13 jump, several dogs headed to the weave poles (I did mention they have great weave poles down here, right?), but just about everyone recovered and got their dogs safely into the chute. The ending sequence was well handled with handlers either doing a front-cross before the triple, a rear-cross over the #16 jump or simply keeping the dog on the handler's left side and pulling the dog over #16. I believe only two dogs went to the off-course table.

Teams did a great job on this course and there was some very nice distance as well. Speaking of distance...here is the Excellent JWW course.
This was a fast, flowing course where handlers used some great distance work.

Most handlers lead out to around jump #2 or 3 and started with their dog on their right side. The next side change came in prior to the weave poles with handlers doing a front cross prior to the triple or a rear cross after the triple. The challenge with the front cross was that several handlers over rotated and dogs came in too tight after the triple and missed the weave entry.

The next side change occurred around jump #10 where handlers again either did a front cross before #10 or a rear cross after. This group of dogs had great distance work and most handlers were able to send their dog to the #12 tunnel.

However, too much distance was also a negative for some teams as the handler was way ahead of the dog as they exited the #10 tunnel and pulled in to the handler, missing the #11 jump.

Since the #11 jump needed to be supported, handlers did their last side change around the #16 jump. This was done using either a front cross before #16 or what was more common was a rear cross after #16 and an easy push down the last line of jumps.

The fastest dog was Jane Simons-Moake (I believe with Suzi) with a time of 22.?? Unfortunately, Suzi had knocked the side of the triple (although it certainly didn't slow her down!) so she NQ'd. Regardless, it was a beautiful run. The next fastest dogs were in the 23.?? time-frame so you can see this was a quick course.

On a different note, I really want to compliment the club and exhibitors for such a fun event. This was only the club's second trial and it was very, very well run. The hospitality was terrific and the exhibitors were a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone for a fantastic weekend!