Jumping and joints

[MaggieDog]

In the flyball video, I noticed that the dog's 'wrists' and hocks really hit the ground on the landing from the jump - is that normal? I tried to look at the two videos I have of Maggie running agility and it appears that her wrists and hocks don't compress quite that much. Is one way better than the other on the joints?

 

Maggie's vet says he's amazed she still has full motion in her carpal joint (wrists) at 6 yo while still doing agility (albeit not every day, but a lot of classes).

 

Do you all look at the dog's jumping technique and body actions on landing to prevent injuries/determine if a dog is sound enough to be worked hard? Would this be advisable, especially in a rescue dog being evaluated for the sport?

[Tassie]

Hi Erin

 

No expert here, but your question is an interesting one. I hadn't actually paid attention to how the dogs were landing - I will do now.

 

My previous Border Collie was not a natural jumper, so I didn't work him too hard. We couldn't compete in agility - jumps were too high until he got too old, but we played around with it a bit, and he was jumping in Obedience - though that is much less stressful on the joints. He stayed very sound, and when Jumpers was introduced here, ran a course at age 12 and a half - just for fun. DQd for 3 refusals (my fault, turned him too sharply onto a jump) but still ran under course time!

 

I've been very careful with my current pair - they didn't start any jumping until over 12 months, then I used Suzanne Clothier's natural jumping method to let them learn to jump. They now do flyball and agility, but they;re only jumping a couple of times a week. My bitch is a very natural little jumper, very light, and very light on her feet, but I'm still careful of her. My boy is a klutz, so I have to be careful with him. I want to be able to keep playing for a long time.

 

Barb