Building up a dogs jumping ability… - Page 1

I’ve got a 22 month old female who I’ve building up on the jump for a little over 2 months. I started her a little later the some as I wanted to take it easy with her still being young.

Calvin

how close r u to the jump? 

You can put something else besides the top board at that height that won't injure the dog while practicing.  Something more forgiving attached to the top like fake flowers or something of the sort.  Something that fills the space and is full.

Also, have you ever seen the poles placed on the tops of the jumps?  They are loose and sitting on a brace.  If the dog hits them, they fall off and more forgiving.

 Hi Calvin,

I work for a long time at less than full height and only on a leash to help get the dog an extra boost up if necessary and to ensure the dog gets the coming and going. I do warm the dogs up if at all possible and especially when cold or when the dog has been lying around. We have a dog here that was having a lot of trouble getting over the jump height, minus one board. If I looked carefully I could see the legs splaying out, especially one leg. The dog also often sat on its tail, which it should not do. A careful exam of her proprioception suggested a problem and she was taken to a chiropractor and with two treatments was able to jump naturally. She was hitting the jump a lot. And yes, this can not just hurt, but be dangerous. I have another male herewho someone else was jumping who hit a jump once and has never been able to jump again. Despite efforts to do so, we have been unable to discover the exact nature of his injury and though he was ready for SchH 1 several times, each time we got close to trial time and I began jumping him again, his old injury would surface and that was the end of that!

So the propblem can be related to technique, or it can be a nerve and/or muscle issue.  But without seeing some video from a particular perspective, that would be hard to judge. Is it possible for you to send video to me? If so, email me privately and I will tell you what I need to see.

I rarely jump dogs full height or on the wall at the proper angle even when they can do so effortlessly. I work, in other words, for a very long time to make sure the dog is jumping correctly and effortlessly and knows the task completely before I make the final heights. Even then, I minimize it. It just makes common sense to me to do so. 

Regards to you.

Weight training, enhances physical potential for any athlete, in any sport. Providing your canine athlete is healthy, and injury free, a good warm up, followed by low level jumps with a weighted harness or vest, will do wonders for the dog, both physically and mentally.  After a month of training with the added weight, when the vest or harness is removed, the canine will feel like he or she can fly.

Nothing against any of the other suggestions but if it's a strength issue and I know this is an old method but it does work, why not do the "sit up/strech-stand up" exercises.

Teach her to sit up on her haunches.  Raise the "bait" so that she has to use her back end to raise herself up to get it.  If the front feet touch the ground she doesn't get the reward and you go back to "sit-up" until she does.

It's an old method (hell, I'm old) but it does help strenthen the back and back end muscles.

If that's her problem it might help.

Calvin,

I swim my dog's for conditioning, and also run them along the river bank with me.   Also I have my dog stay, and walk away about three hundren yard's and then give the command to come, they run full out faster than I can get them to run in any other situation. 

They jump for fun and seem to enjoy it,  I have them jump up in all kind's of situation's, truck bed's, table's, park bench's, up a six foot embankment on the river bank.  Mainly trying to keep if a fun game. 

Pad the top of your jump if you like,  use different jump's for different height's, instead of changing the height of one.

Allow plenty of room for a run up.   

The dog need's to know how high it has to go and changing height's isn't has good as try and try again on the one jump.  

Solid footing, not loose or worked up ground.

Definately have some warm up time and make it fun not work.

On a thought it seems that your dog is missjudging the jump height related to the point of leaving the ground. Try to teach her correct jumping skills by setting 3-4 low jumps in a row. Start with two jumps to find what distance between the jumps she needs to 1) clear them, and  2) without extra step in between or one step in between to clear the next jump. Add number 3 and 4 when she can jump the first two at different speeds and different heights, but not full shutzhund jump height, max half a meter. I call this gymnastic jumping and it is to teach correctness in jumping and the dogs ability to judge distance to the jump to clear it. You will do alot of running (for motivation), but this system really helps. It is similar to agility, or you see it in horse jumping too.

Once she got it down, and you can set the jumps differently in height and/or distance, then go for the board jump at the height she was clearing it before. A couple times, not more. Next time (training day) go for full size without thinking about it. If she hits it, go back to the gymnastic jumps for a couple times, then back to the big one. Be patient and do not take the fun out of it ;)

Cledford:

Thank you for posting this question.  I also am experiencing trouble with Molly's jumping and reaching the required height.  We are still one board short from requlation height and she continues to hit.  She does not seem to get lift, but will clear sometimes - if I give her alot of running room and go fast.  She does sometime stop immediately in front and hits the board.  I also notice she has a weird habit on the escape bite and long bite, where she runs fast and then right before she takes the bite, she kind of makes an adjustment and then lifts herself up for the bite.   I am not sure if she just doesn't  know how to jump properly or wonder if her bad hips cause her problems and she makes these adjustments to compensate.  Also when a friend took a picture of her going over the AFrame, you could see her pulling herself over and her back legs apear to be hanging -not gripping at all.  I will dig that picture up to post to see what everyone thinks.

I hate the thought of me correcting her to make these jumps if it is something physical, but I don't want to make excuses if it is just poor training or conditioning on my part holding her back.

Cheryl

Here is one of the pictures of her going over the Aframe.