Obstacle v. Handler Focus

I love the Backyard Dogs drills found in Clean Run. Here's one by Stuart Mah that we found was really great for our dogs. Not too hard to set up (or remember!) and great for both dogs, though each have different skills to work on.



One thing that we found is that Lexi responds a bit too much to pressure. Specifically, at 1:07, she pushes out to the far jump only because Jonathan is turning, and therefore opened up a little bit to the far jump. I'm not sure how to fix this, because if I add a command for close (we use "here") then am I just babying her incorrect tendencies? Shouldn't it be the opposite...that she only goes out if I say "out", but naturally stays with us? I'm not sure. The same holds true at 4:45 (Sequence 5).

I've also noticed, from watching a lot of these, is that our timing as handlers really needs work. For Lexi, we're too slow and she turns and responds well, but we need to make sure we are asking for turns sooner. For Bentley, we tend to stomp on the brakes, and that causes him to pull in.