cross rails to teach jumping?

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

I May set up a jump in the basement when the weather turn bad. To start Maddie Jumping Does anyone use cross rails? I started Dal on a straight low bar but, I'm wondering if cross rails might encourage Maddie to go to the center more. Most of Dals knocked down bars are when he cuts the standard tight.

[Tassie]

How old is Maddie? Supercautious me doesn't start them jumping till about 12 months, and even then only about elbow height.

 

I taught mine using Suzanne Clothier's method of a row of 5 jumps with 'fences' to prevent run outs. Dogs jump the series independently - either from a wait, with a recall, or going out to a target (just need a helper to remove the treat if a bar is down.) Suzanne starts with a ground bar and the jump bar.

 

Zink and Daniels have a similar cavaletti method in their book Teaching your dog to soar . The general idea is that the dog learns to jump correctly and independently. If the series is completed correctly, dog gets a reward - if not dog gets to do it again. By doing this they learn their own takeoff points, and learn to vary their style.

[airbear]

Originally posted by Dal & Mad's Mom:

...I'm wondering if cross rails might encourage Maddie to go to the center more. Most of Dals knocked down bars are when he cuts the standard tight.

My two bits: I don't want my dog always jumping the center. Sometimes, the straightest line to the next obstacle requires a slice, or if we're doing a pinwheel, I want her to hug that standard on the turn. If the dog knocks the bar, you need to go back to the fundamentals. As someone said (can't remember who), jumps are for jumping, and it's up to my dog to gauge her take-off, angle and trajectory to both clear the jump and land where I'm asking.

 

Wick followed Christine Zink and Julie Daniels's "Jumping A to Z". We have lots of faulted runs (need to find "Weaving A to Z") but we have never lost a Q to a dropped bar. She takes about 5 bars a year .

 

[Gratuitous photo of extreme slicing on take-off to get better position for next obstacle]:

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

How high is that? It looks huge.

 

Dal is only doing 16 inches right now. I was planning to start Maddie at 8 months over very small stuff 8 inches? Right now she is 21 weeks.

 

I think for Dal and I we need more practice getting the whole big course thing together. I hope to find another fun run in Sept and Oct.

[airbear]

It's 22", which is her regular jump height (she's 19.5" tall). We've done a trial at 26", just to remind her to put some effort into her jumps, as 22" are easy for her.

 

We never did the low jump thing. She went from the bars on the ground, to bars resting on cinder blocks, following the Jumping A to Z thing. When she was ready, we went from ground bars to 26" in one session (over about 10 minutes). Ah, the advantage of an adult rescue - no need to wait for pesky growth plates to close! And as a result, she never learned to flatten out over low jumps, as the only time she sees low jumps is in flyball (and that's a whole different technique).

 

Here's another one of her jumping 22". I think this jump looks HUGE, but I guess it's just the angle of the shot.

 

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

Ah, the advantage of an adult rescue - no need to wait for pesky growth plates to close!

 

That is one problem we have. Only Frodo will be 2 in Oct. Next show he should be ready for 21's

 

Dal was born in May and I think Mick is Jan. So neither is truely ready to go up to full height over a whole course.

[silhouettestable]

I got Lightning started jumping over my horse jumps, both crossrails and low verticles, but I've never taken him for any agility lessons (I'm thinking about signing him up this fall though). Now when I'm out in the field moving jumps around he jumps everything in sight, regardless of the height or spread. He and the other dogs will get running around and when there's a jump in his path he just flies right over, sometimes almost on my head when I'm bending over to pick up downed poles. I've seen him jump 3'6" with ease and today when I was walking around the field he came galloping up past me and launched himself over a brush box that's about 2'6"-2'9" with the pole over it. I swear he jumped it like a horse, taking off about 4-6 feet out from the jump, clearing it with at least a foot to spare and landing well past it on the other side.

 

Last year I went to the Royal Winter Fair and watched the Canine/Equine relay, and at the end they did a high jump demonstration. I can't remember what the final height was that the dogs jumped. Does anyone know what the record is?