Originally posted by ParNone
criket writes:

Really?? Cool, Oz and I are doing better than I thought we were. I figured we were at a disadvantage, because he won't run ahead of me. Instructors keep telling me we need to work on that. Especially after practicing a gamblers sequence a few weeks ago. We were doing Jump, Jump, Tunnel, Table and I had to stop at the Jump. He'd start to head towards the tunnel, but as soon as I stopped at the "imaginery can't cross line", he'd stop and come trotting back to me. I've been working with Gully to go to a target, so I'm going to retrain Oz to do that also.

Par...
Well what should happen when running a standard or jumpers course is the handler sets the pace for the dog. For things like gamblers it's kind of good for the dog to be able to work some distance from you. There is a difference however from working distance to the dog working ahead of you. My friend who is a very experienced teacher believes that when you are trying to control the dog from behind them it puts you at a disadvantage because you don't have as much control and it's harder to maintain a visual contact with your dog. For things like the gamble having a distance is good, I know that's one thing that is going to cause me some problems this weekend with Smudge at the regionals. I can get some distance to with him but not on pieces like weaves. Good rule of thumb though even with things like the gamble, if you stop your dog will stop to. After all they are reading your body languge and if you were running full speed and suddenly stopped they will most likely think they should as well. That's why it's always kind of good to get some momentum before sending the dog out to the gamble and then try to run along side the gamble line. Can you tell I spend some time listening to classes when I'm helping move equipment and hold dogs on Tuesday?