Ketschker If You Can :-P

Cedes and I returned to agility this weekend after a three week break, first for class on Saturday, and then for practice on Sunday. It feels good to be back!

(Since I don't have any new pictures of us in agility at the moment, here's a completely unrelated one of Cedar staring at a parrot at the Richland dog shows last weekend. LOL)


Anyways... agility class. We worked a jumpers course that Mary ran last weekend at the Pocatello, ID trials. It was designed by my good friend Jan Skurzynski, who was also the judge. It was a really fun course with some significant challenges and tricky spots for fast dogs. We ran this course on both Saturday and Sunday.


On Saturday, we were definitely rusty after taking so much time off. Plus, I'm still sick, and have no voice, and the grass was really wet and slick, so we were having some problems with timing and stuff. But all in all, it was a good class. We ran the whole course, then worked on pieces of it to focus on specific skills. My classmates helped with some weave pole proofing exercises too, which I really appreciated.


By Sunday (today I guess, LOL) we had our act together. I felt like our teamwork was really good and for the most part, her weaves were, too. We ran the course cleanly several times, then moved on to other stuff. I worked on her contacts for a bit in preparation for the trial this weekend, did some other little drills, worked some distance, and worked more on her weaves. I got the opportunity to run a friend's JRT, "Izzy" through the course as well, which was fun. It's definitely different running a small dog!

Then, Jan (who had come to practice to work her awesome red BC girl, Blazer) mentioned the Ketschker turn, which she had seen done at a trial that past weekend. She set up a jump grid and taught us all how to do it. For those that don't know what a Ketschker is, AgilityNerd describes it as a "reverse front cross to blind cross." Here's a link to a video of someone demonstrating the move:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pPuL1agWz4

Basically, you turn into the dog as they commit to the jump, and pick them up with the same hand as the takeoff side. Sounds confusing, but in practice, it works great! I was amazed at some of the tight turns I was able to get out of Cedar. I think it works because your body language is so clear to the dog. With this move, your feet and shoulders are facing the direction you want to go as the dog is landing. Another good thing about the Ketschker has to do with the dog's path. With a front cross, if you are not spot on with your timing and body position, there is a big danger of back jumping. With the Ketschker, the line you draw for the dog's path is different (I think of it as a "U" instead of a "V") and should avoid a lot of back jumping. I know I was able to get some really tricky wraps and tight turns out of Cedar that would not have worked nearly as well with a front or other kind of cross.

So... I was glad to learn this move today. It's an interesting and useful skill to have in my agility toolbox! I'm excited to practice it more :)

We do have a trial next weekend, my local kennel club's fall trials. Three days of agility 20 minutes from my house :) I am going to try really hard to run with a different attitude and take things less seriously. It is a privilege to be able to run my Cedar girl. So many people I know have lost dogs or can no longer play the game with them due to death, illness, and injury. I need to think less about competition and more about how amazing and joyful it is to run with her. So what if we don't get the weave poles? They will come with time and practice.

I think this break did us good :)