Distance work

Tonight we worked on distance work- what that means is that we have the dogs in front of us, it allows them to be more independent from the handler. How we started was to have 3 jumps in a row then a pause table at the end. The pause table was baited with a piece of kibble. The first run through, we released at the final jump sending them to the table... next run through we sent them through from the second jump... then from the first jump. Pickle excelled at this exercise (he'd rather run the courses by himself sometimes). In the end, I was running pickle through the weaves, sent him to the a-frame, then through the jumps, to the table. This kind of distance work gets us ready for the gamblers class. Gamblers class is game division where for the first (45) seconds each obstacle has a point value, then a whistle is blown and the gamble begins. In a "gamble," there is a line on the ground that handlers can not pass, but must instruct their dogs from that line and negotiate obstacles. To qualify in a gamblers class, you must have meet the minimum point requirement, and complete the gamble in the alloted time. I think this will be my favorite class.