Dear Abbie,

On Sunday at the agility trial I noticed that you set Zuki up to start at an angle to the chute entry. I was wondering why you started Zuki off to the side. Was it so that she would know that she needed to turn immediately after the chute?

Curious

Dear Curious,

To answer your question, you need to know that I want my dogs to always find the quickest way to me. Zuki was offset to the chute in order to put the chute in her line of sight as she looked for me after my lead out. This way she needed to take the chute in order to get to me. (See the diagram)

If I set her facing the chute straight on and then called her, it would not have been her fault for by-passing the chute to come to me (See the diagram).

You are very observant and it shows you how much you can learn by watching others run.

Abbie