So my friend Rob is like the professor genius of many things in agility. I am very, very lucky that Rob has taken pity on my agility skills for all these years and overlooks my frequent, shitty use of the English language and it’s punctuation. Not to mention frequent shitty use of agility skills and it’s, their, whatever. Nevermind. Thanks, Rob.
One thing that’s very important before ever attempting a gamble is that I go and find Rob, wherever he may be, and make sure he shows me where to stand. This didn’t used to always work. I had to teach Otterpop distance skills first. But once you have done all of that, and totally programmed your dog’s personal database with every gamble known to humankind and penguins, then go find Rob and have him tell you where to stand.
Actually, don’t. Because he is probably busy showing me where to stand. Or doing something else. So scratch that part.
On this week’s gamble, there are some key places you need to be. One is, I think everybody should be dressed in roller derby fashion for dog agility. The skates would be hard on many of our surfaces. But that mats? Don’t lots of you people who have to live in snow and so forth of weather conditions totally unknown to people like me who, oh my, had to put on sunscreen and a sweatshirt this morning? You would totally have an edge on us with the skates working on your surface.
The rest of us, we can aspire to booty shorts and high tube socks with stripes. Maybe we can’t have the booty shorts yet. But with jazzercise? Plank position? Can we all aspire to the booty shorts?
Once property attired, here’s where you gots to stand:
Send your dog over the jump on angle away from the a-frame so they can make a nice turn. Then just stay here and se your most excellently taught distance skills to stay behind that pesuky line jump and send out to the tunnel.
Run past the pesky jump while they’re in the tunnel and put pressure on their line towards the tunnel, not the poles, while you jump up and down and flap your flabby lady triceps muscles that you need to tone up to wear roller derby shirts.
Keep your pressure on those poles while you slip past the other pesky jump and pressure on, ladies (and roller derby fellas) for that last jump. They could miss it. Let’s not take anything for granted.
BIG HUGE SECRET TRICK OF THE DAY which is saved for last and clearly important due to the allcaps, which is not good grammatical punctuational usage.
If you’re putting OUT pressure on their line, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT use your right hand/left foot. Same foot, same hand, like hokey pokey dance. Which you learned when you were like 5 and should not have forgotten by now. Same foot, same hand.
I forgot this and Otterpop kept thinking I wanted a front cross and was trying desperately to read this at a distance and doing weird pole entries. Same hand, same foot totally eliminates this and voila. Easy peasy gamble.
In Canada, we call that outside arm "evil arm" and when used, "yer-in yer-out", if you know what I mean. I do wear knee socks so I am on my way to Derby wear but I really don't think I could strap on that head band so I'm out, I guess. Thanks for your suberb drawings and gamble position standing instructions, 2Do would have so been over the pesky jumps without them.
Yep, we would call left arm evil arm here in USA agility, too, for this gamble. I found even with non-evil right arm and evil left foot, Otterpop still thought a front cross was coming. Oops.
Dog on right, supposed to use all rights. And then you shake it all about.
I think all left foot and left arm on this gamble would be double evils, but likely help if there had been a right turn out of those poles to something so way far away I couldn't even draw it. For Otterpop. I did use some evilness in teaching her directionals.