Are you familiar with the seven handling elements? Do you know how they work and how they affect your dog?
All OneMind Dogs handling techniques include elements of seven key factors to support the dog’s movement on an agility course and make it as easy and effective as possible. In every handling technique we try to get all the elements to support the same thing. The handler should be consistent with the training and never give mixed signals to the dog.
Imagine a laser pen pointing from your chest to the ground about five feet in front of you; this is the point which dogs seek. In many techniques we turn our shoulders so that our chest laser points on to the dog’s running line.
While running on the course, the dogs maintain a certain distance to the handler. By turning your chest towards your dog, you can turn your dog’s running line closer to your running line. This natural reaction of the dog is utilized in some handling techniques, for example False Turns.
In Lead Outs, many handlers tend to have the laser pointing forward, which causes the dog to pass the jump. When taking lateral distance to a jump, it is important to have your laser pointing towards the takeoff point of the jump.
Turning the chest towards the dog is a strong slow down cue that is used when preparing for a tight turn. If you turn your chest towards the dog too much, or too early, the dog is likely to take a refusal.
Understanding the influence of different elements has enabled us to demonstrate what is, from the dog´s point of view, a good way to execute the techniques. On the OneMind Dogs handling technique videos the use and the influence of all seven elements are always presented individually. We also introduce the most common mistakes in execution of the techniques shown in the videos. The goal is to give the viewer a complete understanding of how each element works, and to demonstrate what impact
