Clean Run Magazine - April 2007 - 29

Dog’s Perspective Light Conditions and Similarity B e s i d e s this information you must consider the time of day and the light that is shining on the jump. Because dogs’ cones and rods in their eyes work differently than those of humans, the dog’s visual acuity can be in conflict when bright light reduces an already unimportant jump bar to almost invisible because of light conditions or objects in the dog’s line of sight. I would not suggest that handlers get on hands and knees to see what is in the line of sight for each jump, but these things can impact the dog’s performance to a high degree; therefore, handlers must at least become more aware of these influences. At this point you need to consider whether all the jumps in your training arena look alike. Most prefer the jumps with a fixed ground bar because of the ease with which they can be moved around. This preference is, however, a huge mistake from the standpoint of the dog’s understanding of jumping. For example, several years ago I was teaching a seminar at a facility that had only a few freestanding wings (no attached ground bar), and every single dog added strides before those jumps. The reason for the stride addition is the jump has less definition, and so an appropriate place for takeoff is less clear, causing the extra 4 5 On a quick overview these jumps may look the same to you, but to the dog they’re quite different. Which bar will the dog lock onto in each example? stride. The next time I returned to this facility there were at least 20 new jumps, all of which had no ground bar. One of these dogs (arguably one of the best small dogs in the world), still struggles with doubles that have no ground bar, even four years later. Dogs, like horses, should be schooled and comfortable while at home with all the variables they will encounter in the arena. Dogs should be in a comfortable environment so they can work through these issues and meet all their jumps coming forward without patting the ground, measuring, or otherwise trying to buy themselves some time to figure out where an appropriate takeoff place might be. If you look at Figures 4 and 5 you will see two doubles (oxers). Both are without solid ground bars. I personally have a hard time with the fact that in the dog world, the doubles have a cross bar at the bottom. I think this can be very misleading to dogs since it tends to draw their focus down instead of up to the top bar, which is where they need to focus. When you look at these two jumps with a generalized view, they are just two doubles; now think about the example above of the difference in the striped bars. If you were to place a dominant bar in the front and the least important bar to the back of this double, which do you think the dog would lock onto and see as shown in Figure 3? Exactly! The placement of the bars themselves can be of crucial importance. In the world of show jumping for horses, the building of the course has risen to the level of an art. Deciding just where on the course a specific jump should be placed to maximize its difficulty for a technical course is paramount. Homemade Jumps Redux When I first began the sport of agility, I, like many others, had quite a few homemade jumps. After I took the sport seriously (it is a very addictive game) I purchased new and well-made equipment to use and put away my homemade obstacles. I have since returned many of them to use for the purpose of having the April 07 | Clean Run 6 dogs I work with come forward boldly to whatever is put before them. In Figure 6 you can see this panel jump is very busy and bright. There have been a huge number of young dogs that opt to go around this jump the first time they see it and need a few repetitions of jumping it before they are comfortable. 29

Clean Run Magazine - April 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - April 2007