Layering!

Shelby had agility class last night. The course was interesting, but at first glance not too difficult. Except when you think about adding layering! We haven't really done too much layering up to this point, but Shelby can certainly handle it. Layering is when you cue your dog to an obstacle, but not the obstacle that is right next to you. There is another obstacle between you and the obstacle you want to dog to take. In the video below, the dog takes a jump and then the handler layers the A frame when cueing the weave poles.



Here's the course recreated as best as I can recall. I think there might be a jump missing at the end, but it's mostly correct.


The first layering opportunity was taking a jump and a tunnel while I was on the other side of the dogwalk. So the opening was jump, dogwalk, 180 to a jump, then tunnel. So you could definitely handle the opening on your left. I did the opening on the right, then flipped Shelby over the jump and into the tunnel and ran on the other side of the dogwalk. This took a few repetitions because we don't generally do flips. I kind of think of them as short-cuts and not very graceful, but I guess they do have their uses.

After the tunnel, it was 2 jumps to the teeter and the tunnel. We did a front cross at the end of the teeter, then into the tunnel and another front cross at the other end of the tunnel to the A frame. After the A frame was another layering opportunity. There were 3 jumps, and we tried to do the second one as layered. Shelby wasn't quite able to do it, so I ended up not layering, but I did stay very close to the jump, so we were able to get nice distance. Then after the third jump, I did a front cross to the weaves and a pull to the chute. There was some discussion of doing a front cross to the chute in order to avoid a collision. I just made it, but could have run faster. I just beat Shelby to the end of the chute. Then there were 2 more jumps to end.

So it was a productive night.