Clean Run - April 2014 - 30

"If you were being chased through the woods by a bear,"
says Peel, "you would jump over the logs that were in your
way. That doesn't mean, however, that you have a conscious
knowledge of how to jump." She recommends training the
proper mechanics for jumping and acknowledges there are a
variety of ways to approach this. "At the end of the day, those
who are successful are teaching the dog something purposeful and mindful, and rewarding heavily for it."
For McCann, it starts with a lot of one-jump work with low
jumps or no bar at all. "I teach collection, bending, setting up
properly to make a turn over a jump, and how to get around
the wing and land properly. I do a lot of "line jumping" to
teach the dog to extend, playing around with heights and
spacing to make it appropriate for the dog."
Her 11-month-old Toy Poodle is an example of adjusting the
process for the individual dog. "I can see she will jump too
high over bars and I don't want her to lose too much time in
the air, so I want to teach her to go flat. It's all part of recognizing the issues you may confront and nipping them in the bud."
With a drivey dog that jumps flat, she would raise the jumps
to competition height pretty quickly, provided the dog is of
appropriate age and fitness. With a dog that is not as excited
about agility she takes it slower, allowing the dog success at
speed over lower jumps and then raising them to full height.
"I have dogs in class," says McCann, "who are capable of jumping 22", but their brain isn't ready to do that."
Unfortunately, says Peel, many classes introduce jumping by
setting up a line of jumps with a paper plate of food at the
end. "The easiest thing for the dog is to go forward and get
the food, but he is not learning how to jump." In fact, she has
found a subset of dogs that have inadvertently been taught
to touch the bars. "The handler didn't hear the dog touch the
bar and gives a cookie for not knocking the bar. Now the dog
believes that is the proper behavior."
And, even once the task is learned, jumping still needs maintenance. Salo points out that most agility practice focuses
on handling, which is about understanding information, not
how to get it done. "Jumping requires its own practice time
apart from handling. Jumping drills of some sort are a constant part of any athletic endeavor to maintain the reliability
and precision of the skill sets required."
For Salo, it always starts with the set point. She asks for one
quiet, individual jump to see how the dog is performing mechanically before asking him to jump at speed. It's much like
foundation work and can be
done at the practice jump at a
trial. At home, she also sets up
"ladder grids" that are about
speed, balance, and footwork.
"You have to look at the dog's
footfalls to see how confidently he is driving to his takeoff
point. Extra footfalls show me
the dog is not sure where he
should leave the ground."
30

bad Decision makers
Peel also points to a subset of dogs that are simply bad decision makers. "They can jump nicely if the spacing is consistent.
But change the lighting, angle of approach, spacing, etc., and
it doesn't work." Physical conditioning and mechanical training can help these dogs, but, Peel says, the handler cannot
rely on them to make decisions about their takeoff points and
jumping efforts. Dogs with Early Takeoff Syndrome are in this
category. In these cases, a more active handler may be able to
present approaches the dog can judge, change the focus, and
help with handling that shifts more of the decision making
from the dog to the handler.

Herding Dogs
In Dawn Weaver's (www.dawnweaveragility.com) experience,
herding dogs have a unique take on knocking bars. Obsessed
with handler motion, they may be in handler focus rather
than obstacle focus, causing them to take off inappropriately
and not look at the bars. She approaches training these dogs
a couple of ways. A good Go on command will help because
it means the handler doesn't have to race the dog to get to a
handling spot. She also recommends that handlers practice
frequently shifting the dog's focus from handler focus back to
obstacle focus by doing tight handling, such as a pull-through
and then sending the down a line of jumps away from the
handler. Or by practicing three to five jumps in a straight line
and then in an arc with spacing of one easy stride between.
The handler is directing the dog from behind initially, then
gradually adding motion to the point where the handler is
moving ahead. To proof against shifting back to handler focus or predicting the movement of a thrown toy, Dawn uses a
food bowl or static toy at the end of the sequence. "When the
dog is doing really well with a one-stride distance, jump #2
and #4 can be removed to build the distance between jumps
without racing on the ground in between."

The Importance of Keeping the bars Up
So if the dog has been educated in the mechanics of jumping
and persists in knocking bars, what then?
He may not understand that keeping the bars up is his responsibility. Often, says Salo, the bar comes down, the handler keeps running, and the dog doesn't even realize there is
a problem. "Some people," she says, "run as if the fastest speed
forgives other mistakes."
Barry believes it is important to educate the dog not just
in the mechanics of jumping, but also in the importance of
keeping the bar up. There is
also inconsistency in how people address fallen bars. Harsh
corrections aren't necessary,
but consistency is. "I see handlers stop in training, reset the
bar, and then reward the dog
for jumping the bar clean,"
says Barry. "Then at seminars,
camps, or trials they ignore
the dropped bar. It's the same
Clean Run | April 14

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Clean Run - April 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - April 2014