Agility Course Map - Push Out
Dog agility handling has come a long way since I first became involved in almost 16 years ago. One of my favorite blogs, AgilityNerd, recently wrote a nice article on the “Back side jump” maneuver.
My prediction is that the back side jump challenge will be 2011′s hot new dog agility handling how to.
Why? First, it’s a legal agility course option in just about every major organization. Second, it’s new. Third, it provides trainers with an opportunity to showcase a unique dog agility training skill and fourth, who doesn’t appreciate a new challenge now and then?
As an AKC Agility Judge, I’m lucky to have a Rep who embraces my need to find unique and fun sequences. So when I forwarded this agility course on for approval (yeap, it has a push back in it), it was warmly welcomed. However, I was concerned that the handlers weren’t going to be as accepting! (fyi – to make the picture of this agility course larger, click on it)
I chose an area of the country that was known for solid handling and would probably have been exposed to USDAA‘s international-style agility courses where push backs are used more often.
I was excited to see the course run and to my surprise, I didn’t hear any complaints about the #4-6 sequence. Either these were great sports or they were quite talkers. Either way, these competitors did a fantastic job!
I intentionally made this push back simple by taking out the majority of wrong course options. In theory, the handler only needed to push on the dog’s path to prevent them from taking the front side of the jump. However, these competitors were smart and took the upcoming sequence in to account when planning their strategy.
To handle the push back at #5 and the upcoming sequence, most competitors took a straight path by keeping the dog on their right side after the dog walk, pushed toward the ring gating and followed the dog to the back side of the jump. Once on the back side of the jump, they did a front cross which put the dog on their left. The other advantage was that it allowed them to remain on the inside of the circle for the next sequence (dog on their left, while they went down the right side of the weave poles).
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first push back used in a regular AKC agility trial (i.e. not a National or other special event). Enjoy the course and I’d love to hear how it runs for you!
For more information on how to train the Push-Back, click HERE.
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[...] is a continuation from my prior blog on the dog agility handling how to featuring the push back [...]
I’ve seen a couple of these in AKC but they are rare…. Lots of them in Europe…. There was one at the Invitationals this year in the Finals. It’s a great thing to practice with (1) restrained recall skills (calling dog behind you to your “active” ar, dog should not cross behind you (2) one jump — teach the dog that if your right arm is active driving to the right post of the jump or you are standing adjacent to the right post with your right arm out, go around the back side of the jump