what age is safe to begin proper height jumping?

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

Is 1 year old old enough since Dal will probably have to jump 20 to 26 inches. Currently we keep them about 12 inches and give him extra breaks in a lesson.

[RaisingRiver]

It's my understading that yes, he is old enough. But you're going to want to raise them over a course of time in increments probably. This will get him used to it easily and not do what my GSD/Chow did - run under it since it was so high

[CLW]

I personally would wait until he's at least 14-16 months old and then go right to a full height jump. By then his growth plates should be closed. By going to the full jump height right away he should, theoretically, be learning to jump properly from the get go. There's a great series of articles (started in Jan) right now in Clean Run magazine on proper jump training per a well respected agility trainer.

 

Problems with ducking under bars can be corrected by using multiple bars so there's no enought room to sneak thru and going over is the best option.

[Shetlander]

To play it really safe, you might want to wait until he is at least 14 months or even 18 months. The thing is growth plates close at different times in dogs. From what I've read (it's a hot and heavy debate) if he's been neutered, that could slow the closure. In the Clean Run puppy issue, there's an article on what age to start various activities with your dog. For instance, I believe they said training weaves beyond entries should wait until 14 months.

[Kat's Dogs]

I think that 1 year is still to soon (well, it IS to soon - usually the growth plates still are not closed).

 

Dazzle is also 1 year old and I jump her about 12" and when she is more like 18 months I will up it to her jump height (20").

 

But you can still work on striding.

But some jumps (about 5 or so) in a line at all different heights (2" - 12") and put the jumps different distances from eachother and run the dog through them. That will help prepare the dog for higher jumping later.

[Dixie_Girl]

For my 2 cents worth, my vet told me that Jackson could not get cert hip disp. until age 2 because that is when the growth plates are closed. Now it could be that he uses 2yrs. as an absolute assurancet that the growth plates are closed and that they could close sooner, I don't know. But I think I would not want to take a chance at a life long prob over waiting a few extra months.

[airbear]

I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't jump a dog until he/she is ready to do full height and then move them up to full height quickly. Of course, mine are rescues that I got as adults, so it's not like I had to wait too long.

 

For the first couple of months with Wick, we did lots of ground work (to build rear end awareness) and flat work (crosses on the flat, no obstacles). When I finally decided it was time to teach jumping, we went from 10" to 26" in an afternoon. She ran Jumpers in a trial a few weeks later.

 

I wanted her to jump with a nice round style, not flat, as I've seen too many ballistic border collies end Jumpers rounds with bars all over the place. So far, so good, we've never lost a Q to a bar down. We've found way more creative ways to NQ.

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

We've found way more creative ways to NQ.

 

I'm famous for losing my footing in class and taking out jumps, nearly throwing myself on top of a tunnel and once running squarely into the wall.lol

 

Thanks for the info everyone. We can start back to class again next week and I can show Frodo (mom's dog) at a match in the end of April.

 

I was just wondering everyone opinion on the growth thing. He wont be able to match untill almost Dec anyway.