“Get up, get up and get down… jump around”.
It’s all very well training your contacts and foundations well but as at least 60% of a course is jumping I thought we had better make sure he can do this too.
Not a natural, Detour can be a little ‘gazelle’ like. He has plenty of power but without the knowledge of how to jump uses that power to go up instead of forwards.
I won’t go into specifics but if you have never attended a jumping foundation session do it now! It is not only invaluable, but totally necessary for the dogs safety and longevity.
I have always worked little grids with D and have no doubt that without them he would really struggle with his jumping. The Grids equal value and confidence for jumping. Detour loves to jump as much as he loves tunnels and contacts, for a dog which struggles with it physically and lacks confidence this is quite something. Why does he love it so? Because the grid work builds so much value for the jumps and it gives him drive to do more and more! Specifically for D, the set point and ladder/ extension grids have been wonderful and have improved him so much.
Detour made a great choice one time early on in his jumping education. I was running a short sequence (not a grid) and he tried to take a stride between two jumps and ended up crashing the second jump. I reset him and fully expected him to shorten his stride this time. Instead he chose to lengthen his stride and bounced the gap instead! This was such a great choice, for a sensitive small dog, it showed me his value and confidence with jumping was pretty good. I was so very proud!
His jumping is improving all the time, he still gets caught out at times and jumps much worse when he is unsure about where to go. I am constantly amazed by how much our handling affects a dogs jumping style, unsure dogs jump poorly. For different reasons, usually because they are looking over their shoulders… but this is a whole other article!
I have started to move him up to full height much more quickly than I have done with previous dogs for a few reasons. I have always stuck for a long time on medium height jumps when I start to add full height, the dogs opt to go under/ crash jumps.
Knowing what I do about jumping now I think this is for a few reasons. A/ Not enough value in the actual hurdle (dog isn’t looking for them). B/ The dog doesn’t know how to prepare body to jump therefore challenge is too great. Next, Detours training is little and not very often, at this age, Boo had been attending two classes every week plus training days and probably had about forty hours of agility under his belt, I would be surprised if D has more than ten, therefore I need to keep challenging him to actually move forwards and for us to not drift, train every now and again, gaining very little. I find it is very easy to become static when training your agility dog- maybe it’s just me… I like comfortable!
Even though Detour has only done a tiny amount of sequencing (no more than about six sessions) he does have a foundation of jump training (albeit not as much as he should). He has had a chance to work a single full height jump probably once a month (one attempt each time) since he was about thirteen months. With this, he has played grids every now and again he seems to cope well. He is now fifteen months old and I gave him a new challenge this week. A bounce grid into a tunnel, straight into a 17 “ jump onto a 26” jump set about eight feet away from this. He worked so well and shifted his weight back to allow him to take the full height jump on a bounce. I was so proud of my boy!
Overall I think I am asking much more of Detour than I did with my previous two at the same age. If I sequence something new then I will keep the jumps on medium for now but I am keen that he doesn’t just learn to ‘blither’ over the jumps. For the first time I am not scared about a dog being slow, he needs to be slow to be thoughtful and I always see more speed once he understands. And if he comes out a little steady, it will be quite nice to have a dog I can keep up with for once!
All in all the last few months with Detour have been fascinating and wonderful. He is full of energy and a determination to succeed and please. We may never set the world on fire but with our own aims and targets, we will keep improving: failing and succeeding and learning an awful lot along the way…
Next stop 2x2 weaves!
3 comments:
It is refreshing that you are open with your trials in training Detour - I have a dog Rio the same age who is very mentally strong but at the same time very sensitive. I have struggled with motivation, shutting down, concentration and seem to have spent 95% of his training on building drive and enjoyment. We are slowly getting there but like you we are still working on grids with very little sequencing; he has never been in a class (1st one this weekend with Bob Sharpe so we'll see!) and we are way behind other similar aged dogs. However his jump style is building and he takes the odd full height jump confidently. He has a lot of speed in him but doesn't use it often - I'm hoping this grows with confidence. Despite all this I love training him even tho he's the hardest dog I've trained - and the day he first goes into the ring - which is quite a way off - will be a proud moment for me. It's the easiest thing in the world to train a "natural" agility dog and the hardest thing to struggle with a dog that isn't easy - but you learn so much along the way.
thanks for update gem , you have done more than we have, i know exactly what you are saying, i am learning lots with munch, so different to all my other dogs and although it is a challenge i really am enjoying it, it seems to be more of an achievement to me to see what he has achieved knowing how he has been, and when i see that happy go lucky little merle chasing his toy and wagging that tail i know he must be enjoying himself, to me that is the best thing in the world, if he does not compete at high level or even any level at least he will be happy and well loved, you are doing so well with detour so keep it up and enjoy every moment of him x yvette
Hi Gem,
Thank you so much for posting how you're getting on with D's training. I've found it fab to read. It's so refreshing to read the good stuff and the challenges you've faced, well done you for being so honest.
It definitely sounds like 'gazelle' jumping is a trait that brother Buzzy carries too and too can vouch for how invaluable grids and single jump work are to a dogs jump style, value and understanding. Buzz has massively improved and has a lovely jump action now but like D will slip back to the older style jumping when learning something new or if he's not sure what i'm asking - like you said it's amazing how much our body movement affects them. Makes you realise they really are listening to us!
Keep up the good work, sounds like you and D are doing an awesome job x And keep up the posts, we love reading about his progress.
Kim xx
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