I am going to throw my .02 in here as well.
I want to make a few comments about the “Feather” course that was mentioned. A very close version of this course was run at the NADAC Championships with some of the fastest dogs in the country. I watched many of these runs, and many of them were flawless. That course in particular is a handlers course, the dogs line has very little challenge to it if the handler puts them on the correct line to each obstacle. But the key to that course was that the handler needed to cue collection and extension. I have run that course, and personally I liked it, and I run quite fast, large dogs.
On the topic of collection and extension, those are skills that need to be taught to a dog. And in my opinion this is a skill that is often overlooked when training our dogs. Watching dogs from around the country, a lot of dogs will get into collection and not know how to switch back into extension, or a dog will be in extension and not know how to bring themselves into collection. I want my dogs to be able to switch back and forth from collection to extension easily, multiple times on a course. I do focus on training that skill and as a handler it is also my job to cue this collection and extension on course.
We are listening to everyone’s input in regards to courses, and I am making some adjustments. But future courses will continue to have collection vs. extension challenge as what has been seen and a little more technical challenge as well.
Amanda
