Sandra Roth & Lizzy's Freestyle Routine

[GentleLake]

This is pretty cool, and a bit different from most of the Freestyle routines I've seen.

 

 

[Lawgirl]

I got the distinct impression that the dog had memorised at least portions of the routine, because I did not see the handler giving very obvious cues for different behaviours at some times.  I only watched it once, so I may have missed some more subtle clues (e.g. hands turned in vs hands turned out when held up in the air) or there may have been verbal cues you can't pick up on the video but, yes, quite different to most I have seen, very impressive!

[amc]

That was really lovely.  I can only imagine the hours and hours of work both partners put in to achieve such a result.  They both are obviously loving it, too!

[GentleLake]

What really stuck out to me was the distance between her and the dog throughout much of the routine. I'm guessing that would have been pretty challenging to achieve.

[D'Elle]

On 4/28/2020 at 5:32 PM, Lawgirl said:

I got the distinct impression that the dog had memorised at least portions of the routine, because I did not see the handler giving very obvious cues for different behaviours at some times.  I only watched it once, so I may have missed some more subtle clues (e.g. hands turned in vs hands turned out when held up in the air) or there may have been verbal cues you can't pick up on the video but, yes, quite different to most I have seen, very impressive!

Many times the dogs do memorize some parts. One of the things we do in Freestyle is run sections of the routine over and over so that the dog learns to anticipate what move comes next. But also, in Freestyle cues are given entirely verbally at the higher levels. Using hand cues is frowned upon and in competition will lose points for the team. Many good freestyle handlers learn  to even give verbal cues without moving their mouths any more than they have to, although moving one's mouth is not a fault. Usually the music is loud enough that no one hears the verbal cues being given.

This is a gorgeous routine, and very professional. She is giving verbal cues throughout.  The distance work is really fine. Getting that distance is one of the harder things to do in Freestyle and at high levels of competition it is part of what is required to gain the next level of title.

[gcv-border]

That was very sweet, and definitely one of the better ones I have seen. (although I am not an expert)

Thanks, D'Elle for the explanation of Freestyle.