Clean Run - August 2020 - 8

rent level of training when he knows
where he's going next. That takes
away any differences due to handler
position or timing. In my experience,
dogs that are finely built and light on
their feet will take the shorter path.
They have no problems accelerating
from a standstill, and they have the
athletic ability to bend around the
turn. Stocky dogs tend to run around
their turns, as they find it harder to
bend, and heavier bigger dogs will
also have wider turns because it allows
them to maintain their speed around
the corner. Tiny dogs tend to avoid the
feet of jumps, so their turns are generally wider than you might expect.
Having established the dog's turn at
5 paces, next try starting at 10 paces
from the jump (about 30 feet) and
then at 1pace (about 3 feet). This will
give you a record of how speed affects
your dog's choice.
The first time I tried this exercise,
many years ago, I was surprised by my
dog's choice. His turn was wider than
I would have asked for had I been up
close and personal to the turn. However, when I timed it, his choice was
faster. He was a big dog, standing 25
inches to the shoulder, and although he
was light on his feet, it still took a lot
of effort to get that mass moving again.
To make the tight turn that I habitually
asked for, he had to put two collection
strides into the turn, and it took him
about 6 feet out of the turn to get back
up to full speed. A wider turn allowed
him to maintain momentum and was
faster overall, and he obviously found it
more enjoyable/comfortable.
If you are happy with your dog's
choice, all you have to do is to figure
out how to give your dog the information that your toy or food target
placed out gave him. If your dog can
produce the turn when there is a lure
out, he has the physical ability. He
knows how to use his body around a
turn; it's just communication between
you that is missing. My strong advice
would be to invest in a one-on-one
session with a good trainer and work
on your cues and timing of those cues.
8

If your dog is running out around his
turn with his head up, that's generally a
sign that he's trying to get weight shifted
to his rear. This dog needs help with collection and/or the acceleration point.
If your dog is landing long and then
turning, he needs training. This is generally a dog that finds speed rewarding
and has arrived at the wrong solution
when left to his own devices.
If your dog is landing and then looking anxious and sniffing whilst waiting
for you to move, he needs to build his
reward history for turning, and he
needs to improve his understanding.
To produce a good turn, the first
thing a dog needs to do, whilst on the
ground, is to get his weight back into
his rear-end-the powerhouse. Horse
people call it collection. In the dog, it's
a far more extreme action than that. If
you have a look at any picture of a dog
coming up for a jump and compare
it to the same dog going straight on,
you'll see the work that they put in on
the ground. We covered collection in
my article in the March 2020 issue of
Clean Run if you want more information. There are also some good photos
in my article in last month's issue.

What Happens After the Jump?
What we're going to examine here is
what happens after the jump. There
are many dogs who do actually receive
the information that they need to turn
but have not yet been taught what is
expected of a good turn. If these dogs
are going slowly, they'll make a very
nice turn, but as soon as they get a
little speed under their belts, the turns
go wide again.
There are two distinct points that a
dog needs to be aware of to really
understand and become proficient in
turning:
* The first is that having collected for
the jump, the dog needs to maintain control over his rear end whilst
he's jumping.
* The next is the point at which it's
advisable to accelerate out of a turn.

Hitting the ground running will
make any turn wide, no matter how
well the jump was controlled over
the bar.
As ever with reward-based training, this work is split down into tiny
pieces so that the dog is working from
a history of reward. If your only real
method of communication is withholding reward, it should make sense
that there needs to be a fair history
of reward in order for the lack of it to
become apparent.
So, we will begin with the dog right on
top of the bar. Speed in general terms
is the biggest level of difficulty, so if
you sit your dog on top of the jump,
even the most enthusiastic dog will
have no speed into the turn.
Each of the stages that I will outline
should be a real no-brainer for the dog
to complete and be successful at. This
does two things: 1) it teaches your dog
that turn work is fun, something they
can succeed at; 2) It builds reward history for the correct action. When the
reward is withdrawn, the dog will have
that reward history against which to
make informed choices.

First Point to Reward: Head Turn
with Rear End Under Control
The first point that needs to be marked
is the place at which many dogs lose
control of their rears as they jump.
If you watch carefully, you will often
see dogs successfully turn their heads
and shoulders into a turn, but allow
their rear to swing wide. No matter
how well a dog collects before a turn,
if the turning action comes completely
from the front, the turn itself will be
wide. Many dogs whose natural powerhouse is in the front, such as Aussies and gundogs, struggle with this
aspect of training, as do many young
and overly enthusiastic dogs. Watch
what happens to a dog that is fully
extended over a jump, or one that has
misjudged his takeoff and has to fling
his rear up. There's no way a dog can
make a good turn that way.

Clean Run | August 20

Clean Run - August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - August 2020