Building Value for Jumps and Teaching Sends By Rachel Sanders My new to agility clients often tell me that they find it hard to decide how to arrange their jumps for quality practice and when they do have a setup they are not sure if they are handling the sequences correctly. Here are some simple exercises with a specific focus to help you build skills to help with your handling. Building the Reinforcement Value of Jumps A large percentage of our dogs’ training is spent rewarding contacts and weave poles but our dogs may not have been rewarded as frequently for jumping. Jumps make up the majority of the obstacles used in agility and our dogs need to enjoy jumping if we are to maximize their enthusiasm and speed on course. These exercises help to build more reinforcement value into jumping. Start the following exercises with a lowered jump height and build up to your dog’s full jump height. Exercise 1 – Stand fairly close to the jump with your dog at your side. Reward your Training Lateral and Forward Sends When handling your dog around a course you may need to cut corners and “send” your dog to an obstacle so that you can move on to the next part of the sequence. Being confident that your dog will go forward to an obstacle when sent so that you can move on to another part of the course requires training. I use both forward and lateral sends in my handling. These are some simple exercises to train lateral and forward sends. Note: In all these exercises when your dog lands off the jump he should turn toward your direction of motion; therefore, when you reward your dog throw the toy (or food) in the direction of the turn you are cueing. Exercise 1a – Lateral send with han- dog for every clean jump he attempts. Do not reward if your dog ticks or drops the bar. Reward by throwing food on the landing side of the jump. Make sure that you throw the food after your dog has landed ensuring that he has cleared the bar. You can throw the food in different directions so that your dog has to approach the jump from a new direction and angle. Gradually change your location so that you are on the takeoff side of the jump but further away from the jump so your dog must go forward away from you to take the jump. Once your dog starts to pick up the food and immediately attempts the jump again start adding a verbal cue as your dog approaches the jump. Exercise 2 – Expose your dog to different types of jumps and repeat exercise 1; for example, wingless and winged jumps, spreads, the panel jump, and the tire. If you do not own a panel jump you can hang a sheet over the bar or use a lightweight sheet of Styrofoam to form a solid panel. Make the winged or wingless jumps look slightly different by placing some flower pots or other objects in front of the jump wings or uprights. When training the tire jump, remove the tire from its frame and attach it between two stick-in-the-ground posts so that your dog focuses on the center of the tire, not the surrounding frame. dler on takeoff side of jump Sit your dog approximately 10-15' from a jump, start closer if your dog needs Clean Run | May 12 18