Front Cross

Crossing during a PVR is a bit of an advanced flatwork maneuver, but it should be relatively easy if we have a solid drop and our flatwork foundation is solid.

Front Cross

Once we’ve got the dog set on the PVR or otherwise reporting to ‘hook up’ position – the trailing hand – all we have to do is turn towards the dog, match our hands then continue moving against the dog’s direction. We mark the commitment at the match, essentially marking the transfer of the target from hand to hand and pull the dog around just like a regular PVR.

Verbal Cue

Agility people, please don’t freak out, but we’re going to cue this move verbally. Our cue for a Front Cross here at PVybe HQ is “Here”. So once we’ve got the skill working, we’re going to call the verbal right before we turn and match hands… “Here!” then we turn towards the dog, match hands, continue our turn and mark the moment the dog commits.

Pulling the Dog

Once the dog has committed to the Cross, it’s just a normal PVR pull followed by a toss where ever we’d like the dog to go.

Dropping Early is Key

We’ve got to get the dog to drop quite a ways from the handler. 10 yards is probably the minimum working distance for the drop. Anything closer and we’re likely to get tangled up with the dog in the Front Cross cue.

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Responses

  1. Ron, is it possible to get a short little film clip of you doing this? Preferably in slow motion? While it sounds easy, I’d really like to closely observe what you do with your arms and hands during this move,

    1. I think so too.

      Justyna, I am going to be creating a drill for agility people involving two ‘Spots’ or Mats. If you have Spot training on your dog, you can use the spots as a starting obstacle (like a table), and then as a target obstacle to drive the dog to (throw the disc at).

      This should make it much more like agility for people who have their flatwork foundation grounded in agility and conceptualize the Crosses as obstacle centric drills.

      If that makes sense to you and you wanna give it a shot, go ahead and give it a try. Let me know your thoughts and experience.
      Peace~

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