Cross-behinds

I have really been working lately on getting to be a better handler, with better distance work and more fluid and directive commands. With the help of my trainer, Terry, I feel I've made a big improvement in the last several months. My worst maneuver, by far, is the cross behind. I've been working hard at this with all three dogs and with myself, even practicing the maneuver without the dogs. This week I finally felt like I really got the feel of the move itself, mostly with finally understanding that the cross behind occurs behind the dog, not behind the obstacle. For those of you who don't know what a cross-behind is, it's a maneuver where you send the dog slightly ahead of you and cross behind the dog to change directions. Such as in the picture above, Mimzy was on my right side, but I sent her ahead slightly and crossed behind her to put her on my left. We really started to get it while practicing a masters level jumpers course from the DAWG agility trial in McKinney this last weekend.



Deets' weaves are really coming along and looking great. He's got a great little duck paddle going through them. Mimzy and I are still working steadily on 2X2s and she's down to 4 straight poles, ready to add another 2. Her contacts are coming along slowly, and I'm honestly getting frustrated with how long it's taking her to catch on. Deets' contacts look good but need a little polishing as I think I've rushed him a bit, but he generally gets the idea to go to the bottom and stop. Deets and Mimzy are really coming along, and all are surprising me. Landon who is really awful at cross-behinds even got them down today. Mimzy is forever thrilling me and I'm convinced that as she matures and starts to really get this down she will just be a blast. I'm astounded at how fast Deets has progressed. The second weekend in May Deets will compete in Standards for the first time, and Mimzy will be in jumpers. The weekend after that is a USDAA trial here in town and Deets and Landon will be in standards, jumpers (Landon in P2) and gamblers. Mimzy will be in jumpers. I've decided to move Deets down to Performance in USDAA so that he can jump 22 instead of 26, because he's such a big, thick dog that I don't think it's fair to ask him to jump over his own shoulder height by that much. Mimzy, on the other hand, will be jumping 26" even though she is only 23" tall, simply because she's so lean and athletic.