Once you’ve taught your dog to respond to your acceleration and deceleration cues, you should look for sequences on course to use this new skill effectively. Most handlers will use acceleration and deceleration unconsciously on course. However, when you plan your deceleration in advance, you can create amazing turns and eliminate traps with this very simple maneuver.
Here’s a video of several sequences from this weekend’s trial where Esteban and I used the deceleration cue to effectively turn our dogs. Notice that we don’t just use this cue for single jumps, but also over spreads and at the short chute.
Where can you plan an effective deceleration cue on your next course?
Decel is an enormously useful cue. The key (& the hard part for me!) is getting ahead so the decel is obvious & timely for the dog.
Hi, can you direct me to fundamentals of cuing decel and accel? Is it on your blog?
GREAT! I am new to competing in agility and this is a great technique for me to use with my dogs! Thanks for sharing!