Rear Crosses

Like front crosses, rear crosses are one of the more challenging exercises in dog agility training.  Besides risk (see discussion on front crosses), it also involves coordination.   Now coordination is not something you are born with (watch a toddler!)  It takes practice.  It primarily comes from visualizing the action in your mind, coupled with a clear vision of the desired direction you want to be in (i.e. the next obstacle).  Always keeping the end result in mind (the forward motion of the mind) is key.  In agility, successful runs hinge on you being one step ahead of your dog.  I don’t mean physically one step ahead, (many times your dog is ahead of you), but I mean mentally.  You are thinking of the next obstacle that your dog has to do a split second before he is.

Below is a training exercise video for teaching a rear cross.  What I like about it is: 1) It is a young person who is doing it 2) It shows a dog and owner learning this from beginning to end  3) It involves only one jump.  And a clicker, which is not absolutely necessary, but helps to speed up the training.   And oh, almost forgot, 4) It shows one of our practice tunnels in the video 🙂