Jumping at dusk
December 26th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Some jumping practice in the garden, before night fell:
These are now tiny baby jumps, the size of caveletti.
I also put the target stick at the end. I worked back, a jump at a time, waiting for 5 successful touches of the target, before I moved one more jump away from the target stick.
Slate managed to get right to the end of the row, but Grey got no more than two jumps away – although it was quite dark by then!
Ladders & Teaching Your Dog to Soar by Christine Zink
December 21st, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Working trials has an agility section to it, which involves 3 jumps. These are completed as 3 separate exercises:
- A ‘hurdle’ (straight-forward jump) – 3ft high.
- A ‘long jump’ – 9ft long.
- A ‘scale’ (vertical wooden ‘wall’) – 6ft high.
The hurdle and long jump must be completed in one direction only. The scale must be completed in both directions (away from and back to the handler), with the dog waiting for a command before returning. The dog must also wait in a position of your choice, which you’ve told the judge of, beforehand. (I think most competitors use the Down.).
Unlike ‘agility’ agility, speed is not really a consideration: Obedience and precision are. I guess it’s a bit like the jumping in some obedience competitions, except there’s no retrieve over a jump.
Slate has done a term or two of basic agility classes, and was showing promise. I stopped taking her because I couldn’t deal with the amount of barking going on from dogs waiting to take their turn & the sport didn’t appeal to me. Grey hasn’t done any agility.
So I decided to start from scratch and to try to see that the dogs get a good grounding in jumping. I was recommended a good book for this purpose, called ‘Jumping from A to Z: Teach Your Dog to Soar’ by Christine Zink. For the purposes of obedience jumping (which is essentially what working trials is about), she recommends following the first two of the three training sections in her book. (The last section is more agility-agility specific.)
The first exercise of section one involves using a ladder, laid flat on the ground, and luring the dog up and down a ladder for treats. This (allegedly) helps the dog to become aware of what all limbs are doing, and where they are.
We did this exercise once in our house last week, and once today, here in Jersey: I’ve put my dad’s ladder on the grass.
The dogs are doing great with this & I think we’ll be ready to move on soon.
working trials agility equipment
November 26th, 2011 § 3 Comments
I just ordered this working trials hurdle/clear jump, from JesseJumps:
It was very reasonably priced, at £13.95. I also ordered this long jump:
Which was a little more pricey at £39, but, for a long jump, that’s really good value.
This JesseJumps long jump is based around the requirements for agility long jumps, which are considerably shorter than working trials long jumps, though: Agility regs specify a maximum length of 5ft, whereas working trials regs say 9ft. However, the Introductory Stake in working trials is 6ft – which isn’t that far off this 5ft. Even if it’s not exactly the same, it’s better than having no long jump at all.
But, really, looking at the picture, I can’t see why the components can’t be spaced out more so they take up 9ft instead of 5ft??? They’re not connected together. Am I overlooking something crucial?
The working trials long jumps I’ve looked at, have all cost much more. Plus they are usually made of wood, and so not as easy to transport and set up as these are. Transportability, considering we don’t have a garden to speak of, is essential.
A scale. Now, that is not going to be easy. We’re going to hold off on one of those. But the only 2 solutions we’ve been able to think of are: Putting one up in the middle of some public wooded land, somewhere off the beaten path, where hopefully nobody will notice it (!) or steal it, or chop it up for firewood or make it into a ramp for bikes, or [insert other uses here] – or: Putting one up in Jersey, at my parents’ house, so we can use it 3 times a year intensely, for a few weeks. Where, assuming my parents want to live with a 6ft scale in their back garden, it will be very safe but not available for use most of the year. It’s a bit of a tough one, really.
