Agility practice without dogs or equipment

So I'm preparing for the WAC whilst oceans apart from my dogs. Mental strategy is part of the equation. Physical fitness and conditioning is another. Yet another is handler decision making. So I have been analysing some courses set by the WAC judges and other judges from around the world; considering how to solve the handling challenges. Whilst practicing my decision making on paper is a useful tactic, what would normally make this a learning exercise rather than an application, is setting up the courses or challenges and running them as planned. By running the course / challenges it is like grading yourself on your decision making. You test your theories on what would be the best strategy and discover what works, what doesn't and which turns produce the fastest lines.

Of course this is a little hard to implement without equipment or dogs. So this is where my awesome friends at home are helping me out. Not only are we comparing notes on how to handle different courses, but they are setting them up and training with them and giving me feedback as to the flow and strategy. This is helping turn a useful actity into a learning activity.

It is also interesting to see how different striding and turning dogs are coping in slightly different ways with the handling strategies. This feedback will help my analysis of my courses once I meet and learn more about the striding and turns of the Belgian Border Collie I will be running.