Zvonko Valenčak course wins the Course Design Challenge November 2019 by Jane Elene Christensen

The first Course Design Challenge by Jane Elene Christensten found the first winner with Zvonko Valenčak. This was decided by a voting in the social media. In second place was course number 11 from Kurt Munsters with his idea. Third was the initiator of the whole Challenge Jane Elene Christensen with number 4. All courses can be found at this link.

Time to take a closer look at the victory course. The first thing you notice is that only a few jumps have to be taken contrary to the line. A good example of the modern, fast and fluid Agility of modern times. In the same scheme is the starting phase with the jumps 2 and 3, both of them can be taken at high speed. Depending on the angle the dogs have at obstacle 3, the slalom may be a trap. One, that can easily be covered with a blind cross after jump number 3. Number four is a bit hidden behind the slalom, but the way over it is almost straight away. The aim there is to guide the dog as controlled as possible over the jump, and thus to create the perfect angle for the slalom entry.

After the slalom, which can be performed either on the left or on the right, the fast-paced passage follows with 7, 8, 9 and 10. Between jump 8 and jump 10, which must be taken from the backside are almost 18 meters who are likely to feel endless at this moment. There is no time to breath for some time. It continue immediately thereafter with a 24 meters sprint in the opposite direction over the dogwalk to jump 12. The two closely spaced tunnels at number 13 shouldn’t be a problem, as the dog can easily be adjusted for tunnel 13. In general you can say that 13 to 14 is probably next to the fast passage 7, 8,9 and 10 as key point of the entire course designate.

If the dog can take the tempo out of the tunnel, it is easy to pass the dog on traps 8 and 19. At lower speeds, the tunnel number 19 will be an attractive trap. With too much speed and the corresponding line, jump 8 can become a topic aswell. Jump number 17 is one of a total of only 3 jumps, which must be taken from the backside. However, in this case the jump here can be taken with a S-shaped line relatively smoothly. Shortly before the end follows with sequence 18, 19, 20 and 21 again an exciting scene. Coming from 18, the first tunnel has to be overrun and tunnel 19 has to be taken instead. After the tunnel, the third outside follows in a 360 degree circle. If that sequence is passed once, then there is the ending line with a jump, the A-Frame and the final jump, which is in a difficult angle. Depending on the speed with which the dogs jump over the A-Frame, the handlers have to work until the really end.