Jumping BC pups

[Naps]

Please tell me if I'm wrong.. Pups shouldn't jump any height and bars should be on the ground. What I'm not sure of is- up to what age . My teenage daughter seems to think bars at elbow height is OK for a 5 month young pup.

 

Thanks,

Kathy & Noah

[Liz P]

Please tell me if I'm wrong.. Pups shouldn't jump any height and bars should be on the ground. What I'm not sure of is- up to what age . My teenage daughter seems to think bars at elbow height is OK for a 5 month young pup.

 

Thanks,

Kathy & Noah

 

It's ok (though not ideal) for a once a week *puppy* agility class with an instructor that knows not to stress growing bones, but not for at home training. The pup has plenty of time to learn jumping, instead try tunnels, dog walk sections on the ground, the table with the legs removed, etc.

[Lenajo]

too high for more than occassional, and unless you've done a lot of agility "occassional" tends to become too much quickly in my experience.

 

Jumping is also one of the simplist things to teach a BC....far more difficult than handling, front and rear cross, contacts, etc. The nice thing is that you can teach a ton of the "hard" stuff on the flat ground or a wobble board, without ever jumping more than an inch high bar.

 

The Clean Run series on raising the BC pup for agility is very good - you can get the back issues in Clean Run - it's most of 2007.

[Naps]

Thanks I'll keep this in mind.

Kathy

[Kat's Dogs]

My rule is usually no higher than the wrists before 6-7 months - there is just no need to do so IMO. There is so much you can do on the flat, or with jumps with very low bars or no bars at all (just the jump standards). Once the dog is grown, and maybe around a year old or more, official jump training could start and then work up to full height. Even then though, training is kept pretty light physically until more like 18 months to 2 years when I know the growth plates should be closed and the dog is ready for more.

[3dogslater]

IMO, elbow height is way too high for a pup that young. At that age, I'd be more worried about socializing your dog to every situation you can think of. Teach basic obedience like sit, down, stay, come in distracting environments. Specifially for agility, I'd teach operant behaviour/shapping, go outs, targets, tugging, retrieving, tunnels, chutes, wobble boards, hind end awareness, wraps, bending, front and rear crosses on the flat, running a plank - all before I'd worry about teaching a puppy to jump.

[berocca]

We always restrict pups to wrist height until 9 months and then elbow height until 12-18 months depending on breed. If you train more than once a week then it needs to stay low for longer. Delta is 12 months but as she formally trains twice a week and a few days at home I wont let her jump higher than 200mm (which is about elbow height) for another few months. My sister's dog has OCD in one of her legs and it is not a very fun thing to live with. I wont risk it with my dogs.

[kate40541]

I too agree with the suggestions for flat work and not to jump higher than the wrist. Don't be in a hurry now and you'll have a longer time at the other end of their competition life. My first agility girl just retired this past spring at 13 1/2, to me that was more satisfying than our younger days. We started actively competing when she was 3 1/2.

[Pat W.]

Definately lower is good and no bar better. My youngster just went 1 yr and is still only jumping 8 -12 inches when we work any type of jumping at all. I will set an 8" bar when practicing wraps, front crosses and rear crosses. I work mostly on go outs, recall, lead out, table commands, tunnels, contacts on the ground ect. There is no hurry and in my opinion the longer you can wait to bring a dog out the better. My ultimate goal with my youngster is to be working at least Advanced type sequences before bringing him out.