Articles Tagged: handling

Wildcard tests the handler’s and dog’s abilities to discriminate between and maneuver around obstacles set closely together. The planning and thinking required for success in Wildcard is applicable to other agility classes, especially the ability to navigate tight spaces with many obstacle traps.

Using real estate, the physical space that you have to work in on course, wisely allows you to develop an effective handling strategy and make wise choices about where to take shortcuts on course and where not to.

With some preparation and some thinking on the fly, you can be prepared to accumulate a house full of points and a qualifying score. The planning and thinking required for success in FullHouse is also applicable to other agility games.

In this article we’ll look at how the technical skills developed for other venues can help to solve NADAC puzzles too. The author describes a handling approach that works for NADACstyle puzzles, but also translates well to other venues where you can handle your dog along an ideal path and the obstacles are presented to the dog because they are in his way. You’ll learn about managing your dog’s path and controlling the variable performance obstacles (jumps, tunnels, running contacts).

Having a dog with well-trained turn cues can make your life easier and is also much easier on your dog’s body and brain. In this series, you’ll learn how to teach your dog the seven turn cues. Here’s the second cue, the pull. By Sandy Rogers

An instructor, competitor, and world team coach shares his blueprint for what is demanded of the “perfect” agility dog and handler, which you can use to develop a comprehensive training program for both handler and dog.

In this month’s drills you’ll get multiple opportunities to practice finding the back of the jump and to try some interesting lead-outs. Why practice these European-style challenges? Judges at U.S. trials are beginning to use elements from European courses.

Our series concludes with a summary of the overall differences between these two handling systems.

Test your skills on a sequence from a Large dog Jumpers course at the 2009 AKC/USA World Team Tryouts.

In this article we’ll compare the differences and similarities in the use of pushes and flickaways in both systems. This is another area where the handling systems are quite different.

This month we’ll compare the use of the opposite arm in both handling systems. The use of arms seems to create the most confusion between the two systems so here we’ll discuss using arms with regard to particular maneuvers.

This month Jenny gives further examples of how she uses front and blind crosses in her handling system.

Let’s explore the challenges faced by competitors at the 2009 AKC/USA World Team Tryouts in the Small/Medium International Jumpers class designed by Kurt Matushek.

Now that you know what a serpentine is, how to handle it, and how to train it, let’s look at some practical applications of the serpentine that might save time on course.

Test your skills on a sequence from the USDAA Dog Agility Masters Tournament Team Standard course from a Four Star Tournament Event held in California.