BusyDog

Jumping 102

A few months ago, I wrote an article called ‘Jumping 101’. In the article, I addressed factors causing knocked bars. Since that article, I have helped several other dogs overcome their jumping and resulting bar knocking problems. For these dogs, the techniques I had been using were not enough. I had to develop some new ones.

The two dogs that I worked with usually knocked a couple bars each course. After watching them, I noticed that they knocked bars when they took off too soon or too late for the jump. They seemed to have trouble clearing the jump when a stride adjustment was required on the approach.

I set up two different exercises for these two dogs. Both exercises were straight lines of jumps (jump chutes.) The first jump chute was about 6 jumps where the distance between the jumps ranged from 12 to 22 feet. I set the first four jumps about 20-22 feet apart. The last two jumps were set 12 feet apart. The jumps were set at the appropriate height for the dog.

When I worked the dogs, I ran beside them. I didn’t lead out. It seemed that when I lead out, the dogs were slower and were able to negotiate the jumps fine. When I ran with them, they had more trouble. If they were able to do the jump chute successfully the first time, I made it a little harder. I used my voice, toys or treats to really encourage them to go fast. I wanted the dogs to be able to negotiate the jumps at full speed. Elite Jumpers has a very high Yards Per Second requirement and playing it safe usually does not result in a qualifying run. The goal of the long jump chute is to teach the dog how to adjust his stride when the distances between the jumps vary.

The second exercise I used was a jump chute where the jumps were between 3 – 6 feet apart. To introduce the dogs to the jump chute, the jumps were set 4” – 8” lower than what the dogs normally jump. When I introduced the dogs to this ‘compact’ jump chute, I always did so carefully. Some dogs are confused by the jumps being so close together and come up with very creative ways to negotiate the chute. The goal of this exercise was to teach the dog to snap his legs up and round over the jumps. If the jumps are set correctly, the dog should ‘bounce’ through the chute. If the dog tries to jump two jumps at the same time (like and extended spread), then the jumps may be too close together.

I used these two exercises to teach the dog to be more aware of his legs, jumping style and take off point. Each time I worked the dogs, I only did a few minutes of each type of jump chute. If the dog negotiated the jump chute successfully, he got a treat and a ‘Yippee!’. If he knocked a bar, I simply stopped running, reset the bar and restarted. After working with several dogs, I have decided that negative feedback when knocking a bar doesn’t help. The main reason is because it’s almost impossible to deliver a verbal correction as the dog is knocking the bar. Most often I only noticed a second or two later when the bar has fallen. By then, the dog is on to bigger and better things. He has no idea how that bar ended up on the ground.

Within four sessions both dogs showed an improvement in their ability to clear the jumps. One dog still had an occasional bar down. I suspected his problem was physically related. I noticed that his front end was very tight. If he put his paws up on my chest and stretched, his left front leg could not extend as far forward as his right. His reach in his left shoulder was much more limited. After watching him jump, we noticed that instead of reaching both front legs forward and elevating his elbows above his chest, his left elbow was restricted and was lower than his chest. His left elbow was hitting the bars. So his owner and I started a series of massages on him. We worked a lot on his left shoulder to loosen it up. We wanted him to be able to extend both front legs far enough so his elbows were in front and above his chest when he jumped. Within a couple weeks, the massage improved his jumping style and he was able to finish that elusive Elite Jumpers title!