The other instructor for the agility class, MH, has been OOK since before Christmas so I've been running the class by myself. Getting the equipment to the field and getting it set up on my own requires a lot of effort. I also found that running the class, currently with 8 dogs and handlers at two distinct levels of experience, is really challenging. Arranging exercises suitable for each set of handlers and moving through them quickly enough so that no handler has to sit and wait for too long is harder than I expected. But MH emailed me this morning--she's back! Whew! With two instructors, we can keep two stations going all the time so the pace will pick up a lot.
Since we have such an avid group in the class, and since I see them all trying really hard to learn everything we throw at them, I thought I would select some videos of great handling and share those with them with the goal of inspiring them even more. There is a lot of poor, inconsistent handling out there that has been preserved forever on the internet, but I figured the FCI World trials would be a good resource. Indeed, there is a highlight video about 9 minutes long from the 2010 trial. I also found a video of American Ashley Deacon and Luka from 2011, and Austrian Lisa Frick's end-of-tournament 2011 run with Hoss in which he dropped the very first bar but she kept going like the gold was still in play--amazing sportsmanship.
I guess I overfaced my class participants a bit. JH, Aris's handler, came back in about an hour with this classic line:
I'm trying to start their agility obsession. No better way to do that than to give them a chance to watch the best in competition.
Since we have such an avid group in the class, and since I see them all trying really hard to learn everything we throw at them, I thought I would select some videos of great handling and share those with them with the goal of inspiring them even more. There is a lot of poor, inconsistent handling out there that has been preserved forever on the internet, but I figured the FCI World trials would be a good resource. Indeed, there is a highlight video about 9 minutes long from the 2010 trial. I also found a video of American Ashley Deacon and Luka from 2011, and Austrian Lisa Frick's end-of-tournament 2011 run with Hoss in which he dropped the very first bar but she kept going like the gold was still in play--amazing sportsmanship.
I guess I overfaced my class participants a bit. JH, Aris's handler, came back in about an hour with this classic line:
No, no! I wailed to them in a reply. I wanted you to be inspired by the great handling and athleticism, not freaked out!I’ll hang me treat bag up now then…
I'm trying to start their agility obsession. No better way to do that than to give them a chance to watch the best in competition.
2 comments:
try Silvia Trkman, Jennie Damm, Dawn Weaver - those should hit close to home for them :-)
Can't believe your class is up to 8 now. That's just awesome.
Also last year's Crufts - pretty entertaining, lots of little dogs and very adorable - there are quite a few video montages of that
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