Episode 61: Which Way is Faster?
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[00:00:00] If you train, compete, or teach dog agility, you're in the right place. Hey there, I'm Megan Foster, creator of Fostering Excellence in Agility. Join me as I share key insights on all things related to dog agility and help find your team's path to excellence and unlock your best year yet. Let's get started.
Hey there. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I want to talk to you about determining. Which way is faster to turn your dog on the course? Are we turning the dog to the left? Are we turning the dog to the right? Are we wrapping this jump or are we slicing this jump? This comes up all the time when I'm teaching coursework, and I do have a general [00:01:00] set of guidelines that you can use to help determine.
What is best for your dog right now? And maybe you'll have to rerun some data to determine what's best for your dog in six months or in another year. Sometimes it changes. So first, the general rules. We really only start talking about which way to turn is faster if all the skills required are equal. So this means that.
If turning the dog on the wrapping line requires a skill that I don't have, but I have the skills required to take the slicing path, then that is the way I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go with what I know that I can properly execute and that my dog can follow the handling for. I also want to point out that I need to be able to do both options right [00:02:00] the first time.
So the few times that I have been lucky enough to set things up and use proper timing equipment to try and see. Exactly which way is faster for my personal dogs. It is kind of not fair if it takes you two or three attempts to get one, one direction just right and the other way you get it the first time.
So timing these things in the same session can sometimes produce unsatisfying results and also dishonest results. Because the dog might be fatigued. By the time you get to one direction, they might be patterning in one direction. So really, you just want to apply these rules consistently and see if a pattern develops in that something with your team is not quite following these general rules.
Or if you [00:03:00] need to change things specifically for your dog. So think of deciding which way is faster as a point system. And the first thing that we evaluate is the shortest path. So if the wrap is a lot shorter than the slicing line, then we give the point to the wrap and vice versa. So one point goes. To the direction of the turn that is just the least amount of yardage.
And if they're pretty similar, we just split that point in half.
Generally speaking, I don't want to turn away from the rest of the course or the next obstacle when it feels like one direction takes me in the opposite path of where I'm going next. It's probably going to be too long of the, of extra [00:04:00] yardage in order for that line to be ultimately faster.
The second point goes to the easiest jumping effort, and this is where it does start to get a bit more dog specific.
Because easiest jumping effort is more subjective. We can determine the easiest jumping effort by way of number of lead changes because maybe lead changes are more difficult for your dog. Maybe the easiest jumping effort is determined by your dog's preferred turning direction. Maybe they have an easier time turning right than left.
Maybe the easiest jumping effort is determined by the amount of collection needed. If collection is more difficult for your dog, maybe you [00:05:00] are taking into account all three of these things. So easiest jumping effort. Does have to be based on your dog and what you know about them. A lot of people will make blanket statements like slicing is always easier than wrapping, but when we have angled approaches and really narrow.
Approaches to certain obstacles that might not always be the case. So really understanding your dog's strengths and weaknesses can help you best put this point in the right column. The third point is going to be given to the direction of the turn that provides the best line to the next obstacle or sequence of obstacles.
So if we're talking about a contact approach or maybe approach to a tire or a spread jump, [00:06:00] this is probably going to be very objective. There's likely going to be one that is more ideal than the other, and that may weigh very heavily on my decision when contacts and the tire are involved. Uh, but otherwise I am looking at the next obstacle or the next sequence to see, you know, does my dog see the next one obstacle, or do they see the next two or three obstacles?
You know, if I wrap them, can they stay on a straight line for longer than if I slice them? They might have to do two or three more turns involved in the next sequence, whichever. Line looks better for your dog. That direction gets the point. So again, the general rules, it's a straight point system, one [00:07:00] point for the shortest path, one point for the easiest jumping effort, and one point for the best line to the next sequence.
And then whichever direction comes out on top in that point, system is generally going to be the faster direction for that course that day. These rules, of course, are impacted by a few things that are more specific to your team. The dog's size and structure is definitely going to impact which way you want them to turn.
Right. Their, their size is really going to impact the shortest path situation. Um, especially when we're talking about very small dogs. If they are slicing a five foot jump, that's going to add quite a bit more yardage in some situations. Then wrapping that same jump. So we really do have [00:08:00] to measure out the yardage that we're asking them to take and compare both directions.
Their structure also plays a role because if their structure limits how much they can extend, we run into the same, um, issues with like a five foot bar on a slice. They may not be able to physically extend enough. To have any benefit that the less collection or less turning has on the additional yardage, and also their structure may make them better at adding strides and collecting.
Therefore, the easier jumping effort might be different for them. Also, if they are really big, less bendy, we have the opposite things, the slicing lines, the keeping them in extension lines require less collection for them, and they are able to cover more [00:09:00] ground on the slicing line and not have to slow down so much to do the wrapping line.
So things like size and structure are definitely going to impact. How we view the shortest path and also those easiest jumping efforts. I also want to consider the obstacle handler focus, balance that, that my dog has because again, if choosing one direction is going to put them into a lot of handler focus, they may slow down more than I would like them to, especially when I'm thinking about the next sequence or if.
Turning my dog in one direction will open up a lot more obstacles for them to look at and cause maybe the turn to be wider or additional yardage to be added to the time that might not be there if I [00:10:00] chose the other direction. So these are very generalized. Rules and guidelines that we can try to apply to our coursework when we are determining which way to turn the dog.
But ultimately, I have found the point system to be fairly accurate with very few exceptions. So start with the three point guideline system and see how this goes for you during your next coursework, training session or competition.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, I really appreciate some feedback. You can leave me a review, engage on social media or share this with a friend. I hope you'll be back to listen to my next episode. In the meantime, you can find all of my offers on my website, fx agility.com. Happy [00:11:00] training.
