Frequency of Jump Training

[Mariji]

I found luckily with my first dog that it is extremely important to build value in all obstacles. I noticed this when my dog was about 14 months, she could already compete a whole course but I knew she could be 10 times faster. I noticed she LOVED contact obstacles mainly the A Frame and when I though about this I realized it was because of all the foundation contact work we had done which had been done over about 4 months on the bottom of an A Frame. She had value sky high for that obstacle. After going to my first competition (which don't get me wrong, she did fantastic at for her first competition) I decided to go back and work on getting her faster over jumps. She was running, faster than most dogs but not as fast as she could go.

 

I had never taught her to jump just expected her too which happens alot more often than people realize. I had never rewarded her for jumps (or very rarely) as I just used jumps before or after the obstacle I'm teaching. So for a month I put out just jumps and worked on building value. We went out for a minute everyday and she gets hyped up when we go towards our training yard as she knows we get to play but disappointingly there was only jumps out. I pulled out my roo steaks and tennis ball and worked on just reinforcing jumps through shaping before we did jumping style. We worked on forward focus so she wasn't crashing through jumps because she was staring so intently at me. Below is our 1st competition but the 2nd run. The 1st run she did much better but this shows at the end when she pulled off a jump and realised she got it wrong she stressed and starting sniffing around. She isn't really sniffing just has her nose to the ground. She has a flat jumping style and takes off too early, coupled with her lack of value for jumps made her just lumber around the course speeding up for only the tunnels and weave poles, not too mention crashing through jumps.

 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/vi...?v=344261768763

 

Now this link below is a more recent competition after we built value and worked on her jumping style. She is alot faster and smoother and whilst she still takes off quite early her jumping improved 100%. I was so proud of her and she was alot more eager to work with me. Since then she is even more driven whilst maintaining her control around a course which we will try out in and Intermediate competition after our WAC Downunder trials.

 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/vi...?v=389807983763

 

I think time needs to be taken to teach jumping just as much as it does any other obstacle. I am doing Susan Salo jump work with my puppy right now but she just likes to run so naturally jumps are her favourite, as for contact work that is where I will have my work cut out for me.

[Root Beer]

Mariji, that is quite a difference!

[Pat W.]

I do very little jump training with this particular dog, Whim is a careful jumper that knocks bars because a) mom jams him, mom talks over the bar c) he's so reved up he flattens. However I do used a jump in training other obsticles to build speed into a second obsticle. Normally I train 1x a week formally consisting of short sequences of jumps, contacts and or tunnels, weaves or tire, currently I have laid off for the summer to work independently on LM's recall over a jump and weave pole entries. I agree with Blackdawgs that there is a finite amount of jumping that a body can handle before joints start having problems

[Mariji]

Mariji, that is quite a difference!

 

Thank-you. That was about 3 weeks apart those comps too and a couple of months ago now. Last night at Advanced training she did phenomenal didn't knock a single bar and she was running at 650mm when she usually runs 550mm and we were doing serpentines and tricky front crosses. Her jumping was amazing compared to the flat, pulling her over a jump instead of actually jumping, style she did have. Other people in the class said she was clearing the jumps with room to spare even when doing her tight turn for her serpentine which is fantastic because we have an intermediate run this weekend where she will be jumping 650mm ( She is a Maxi but in Novice we jump a height lower and when you reach intermediate the height goes up.) I am so proud of her she has come a mile.

 

I think the impact on the joints would be minimal short of drilling your dog constantly compared with contacts. I mean I don't know anything about their physiology to comment but can it really be severe? I am changing my contacts on the A Frame to running because of the impact and her drive and I am concerned about her body.

[Root Beer]

This discussion was very helpful.

 

In the end I've decided to go back and re-do some foundation work with Dean to build value back into the jumps. I am going to alternate between working with jumps set at his full height and hoops or jump posts with no bar. He needs to be able to differentiate between them, anyway, since I'm going to do NADAC with him. That will minimize the need for repetitive jumping, but give him a bit more regular practice on the jumps, which I am pretty convinced he needs.

 

I think that doing this, in conjunction with running courses at his weekly class, will help him see the overall pictures of where the jumps fit in this game.

 

Thanks, everyone, for your input.