Learning Agility Courses

[Reddii]

I'd love to hear from anyone who in their dim and distant past has conquered their demons on this one. Situation is Xena runs perfectly every time we turn up at agility, but we get about a 50% strike rate on qualies (apart from yesterday at 0/4, but that's another story) in the starters and elementary.

I've only trialled 4 times so it is still very early days, but I have REAL trouble remembering courses. I can run them comfortably and know how to handle most of the combinations, then I can stand and go around the course in my mind, but once Xena is involved my brain turns to mush and I get lost/forget when the going gets a little more complex. I know it will come to me in time, but I wondered if anyone had any techniques they used when they first started.

I hate letting my little girl down (I know she doesn't care and has fun no matter what), so I really need to work on this.

Thanks in advance.

Tony

[poodlefan]

This is how I do it.

Walk first time to find which obtacles are where (counting the numbers)

Walk the second time to analyse the most efficient (read shortest) path for the dog.

Walk the third time to decide where you have to be to get the dog to run that path. Because my dog can sometimes be in front OR behind me, I focus more on where the dog is in relation to the path he needs to run than planning exactly where I want to be at any given time.

I also find it useful to close my eyes and visualise the course in my head before running it.

Don't despair, practice really is the key to getting the courses straight. It does get easier, especially as you get more of a feel for where your dog is likely to be as she proceeds on the course. Provided your girl is having a good time, you aren't letting her down. Even when it all turns to shite and you DQ, if you can find a path out of the course (make one up if you have to) that gives her a good fast finish, then take it.

I don't tend to get lost, but gee I can end up badly out of position sometimes. Although I do recall running FHRPs Flynn once. I wasn't fast enough to direct him to the correct obstacle so he made up his own course. After that I was well and truly lost

Edited May 11, 2008 by poodlefan

[superminty]

If it helps, I recently started doing the following:

Walk once to get the order then break the course down into 3 or 4 parts (depends on the level, novice probably 3, masters 4). Walk each part separately, work out how to run each part as a sequence then back chain them. I figure that if using training theory is good enough for the dog then it's good enough for me.

This has really helped me remember courses, particularly Masters courses of 24 obstacles - near impossible for me to walk it in the correct order and have a hope in hell of remembering the last part.

[smisch]

I'm like this too! I get so focoused on the dog that I forget the course! I have started a new method which is starting to help me a bit more!

1. walk the course and work out where everthing is

2. walk the course and try and work out my crosses and all that!

3. then <it sounds stupid> I walk the course as if i'm the dog I start facing a jump and walk it so I can work out what the dog will see ahead of them, its helped me work out what jock see's when he comes out of a tunnel or over a dog walk! So I step over the jumps, walk beside the tunnels but end up at the end looking ahead to see whats there and I stand at the end of any oobstical to work out what the dog would see as the next obstical and its helped me remember the course!

Hope that helps!

[Vickie]

Another tip I find helps is to actually run the courses...especially the bigger ones. If you can't run it without your dog, running it with your dog will be very hard. Problem is that it can be hard to do if there are a lot of people in the way walking it.

There is a thread on it here with lots of advice from various people:

http://www.dogsporttalk.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=117

Edited May 14, 2008 by Vickie

[Reddii]

Thanks everyone for all your responses. I'll be putting a bit of it into practice.

Another thing I've just found out is that my boy is actually in the same height class as my girl after we have re-measured him. For the minute (at least the next trial) they'll be running in the same class so I'll have at least 2 goes at each course!! Just hope the 'right' dog for the course ends up first. LOL.