Anyone have any good book recommendations for jump/handling drills? I really do best with a visual and a solid plan before training.
I own Suzanne Clothier's jumping book, and I like it because it has a very concrete plan. I do find it a little outdated and I feel like it does not address a lot of mechanics that are necessary for modern agility courses. For many years it has been rumored to be updated, but it hasn't been, and I doubt it will be at this point.
I own several Susan Salo jumping DVDs and I also bought her book once it came out. IMO it's really helpful to have both, but I think the book does a quite solid job of explaining things. Where the DVD is going to be vastly superior is in the overall explanation of the mechanics of jumping. But for that, if money is an issue, you might consider just doing Clean Run's on-demand video rental for the foundation jumping DVD so you can watch it, understand the fundamentals, and then the book will do the rest from there.
The book does a really good job of also laying out training plans while the DVDs do not (at all.) They are not concrete plans, unlike Clothier it is not a distinct "on day one, do this. On day two, do this." But in practice that is actually kind of the beauty of it. There is flexibility and you can really tailor your work to your dog's specific needs.
I'm thrilled she came out with the book and I am super glad I bought it.
As for the rest of handling... I'm not sure about books doing the job, I don't know of any off the top of my head. Maybe the Clean Run course source books for suggestions of things to set up (they are collected from the magazine)? But they aren't really intended to walk you through how to handle or how to trouble-shoot, by and large.
I have been really happy with my Dave Munnings DVDs for handling stuff. Doesn't hurt that he's quite handsome and that accent, haha. I also found them quite affordable compared to a lot of other DVDs out there. IMO handling can really be done with just a few jumps and small spaces and once you've practiced it, it translates easily. Over Halloween I ran a course with Payton and I did some handling stuff that I've only practiced in a circle, but tried it on a not-so-straight line of jumps and it worked SO beautifully, I wasn't even mad about the blown contacts, LOL.
Trkman's Foundations DVD IMO gives a lot of handling suggestions that will take you pretty far too. But she doesn't really give many examples of things to set up, just "this is how you practice handling" and you kind of just go from a general idea... so that might not be what you're looking for.
