Blogger Tuesday

My pick for Blog of the Week is Agility - The Chaos Theory! This is the blog of an agility handler and judge who lives and competes with her dogs in South Africa. It's an interesting look into what agility is like in a totally different country. Some things are similar and some are interestingly different. It was her post from Saturday that I enjoyed in particular and got many wheels turning in my head. In obedience you are taught to proof for all manner of things. You want to make sure that your dog fully understands the exercises and can perform them under pressure. I don't really feel like there's the same proofing mind set in agility. Yes we work on our chosen contact positions and we also tend to work on weave pole entries from a variety of angles, but how many people actually think to proof the individual jumps? I know that I surely didn't think to do that. Heffner is pretty good at making up for my short comings as a handler, though in higher stress environments he's more likely to knock a bar when he may not have in practice. Bess is incredibly sensitive to my body positions and it's very easy to botch a cross or pull her off a jump. Now if I actually spent some time proofing the individual jumps as suggested, maybe I wouldn't see so much of that! That is going to be my task for the summer. I am going to have fun with the dogs in my own back yard and proof those jumps. This could be highly entertaining!!;0)