Jumping Skills

I am no jumping expert, but I am a student of jumping.  By that I mean, I want my dogs to have good form and understand their job so I seek out knowledge in those areas.

Tangle is a great jumper.  I have been told my many that he is "gifted" or a natural.  But, what does that mean?  I am not really sure, but when contrasting him to Hoot, I didn't really have to teach him anything at all.  He takes off from his rear, he has an even arc over the bar, he turns over the bar, he judges distances between jumps very nicely, it is effortless and he doesn't knock a whole lot of bars.  He has always been that way.

In contrast, Hoot has been different.  She is not a bad jumper at all, in fact she is a fairly good jumper by that definition.  But, I have had to take moments and help her slow down, use her head and figure out what I need her to do. 

With Tangle I used purely Linda Mecklenburg's Developing Jumping Skills.  He jumped 4" bars but never anything higher until I was ready to move him up to full height.  Then I followed DJS's methodology.  Do I think this was the secret to Tangle's talent?  No, not really.  It is a great method, don't get me wrong, but I strongly believe that I was working with a natural jumper.

With Hoot I decided to do things a bit different.  Why?  The best answer I can give you is that I wanted to see if some other method worked.  I loved DJS and found nothing wrong with it.  The only thing that I thought I wanted to improve upon is giving the dog, from early on, the skills to judge take off distances from bars at speed.



I took Hoot through Silvia Trkman's Foundation Class.  In that class you gradually raise the bars as the dog ages.  The dog never really has to jump from it's rear until the bars are close to withers height.  In the beginning Hoot knocked a lot of bars--a lot!  So I started her on some DJS one jump work at 12".  I know, I know, I wasn't staying with the methodology, LM is probably reading this and silently berating me, but that is OK.  When we slowed things down, she had to think and got rewarded for not hitting the PVC, engaging as much rear as possible and turning on take off, she suddenly began to really understand what I needed her to do.  She also got valuable experience on the mechanics of what she needed to do.

Each time I raised the bars I did this.  She has had her moments when screaming around the course has become more important than anything else.  But, again, we slowed things down, worked together and it became clear again what I needed her to do.

So, now she is at 18" and almost 15 months.  Tangle was already jumping full height by now.  I am about to embark on going through the whole DJS book with her at 20/22" inches.  Her jump training won't be done, but this will be her most in-depth lesson to date.

She already understands all the foundation handling, she understands it is her job to keep bars up, so at this point I want to focus on turning, scoping out where the bar is and how she needs to take off.

Stay tuned, it will be a while before we know if my experiment worked. :)

Powering through a course

I think that there is a ton of value in teaching foundation, breaking down sequences and working all the pieces and parts of the exercise/course.  I also believe that there is tremendous value in just powering through a course, not giving up, and learning to improvise with what the dog gives you.  They aren't always going to do what you expect. :)

I am taking Silvia's Handling 1 class with Hoot.  This morning I set up one of the courses and decided that "powering through it" was my objective.  I ran the course with both Tangle and Hoot.  You can see that both dogs reacted slightly different on this course and we powered through.







When I was running this course with both dogs I was being a bit conservative.  I want to re-run it "balls to the wall" so da speak and see what kind of commitment and trust we have in each other.

The allure of the running contact

I have trained one dog on running contacts and didn't keep them, I have re-trained another dog to have running contacts (and kept them), and I am in the process of training baby Hoot to have running contacts.  So I have seen this process from a couple of different perspectives.

I will say that each time I go through the process I get more faith in it, and have more patience and appreciation for what the dogs have to learn.  I think that I also get more confident in knowing that one or two bad sessions isn't going to ruin my dog.  I also have complete faith that it is a journey.

But this is a reminder to myself...be patient with the process and don't rush it.


I can say that even though Silva's DVD on running contacts does a great job giving you an idea of the process, what she doesn't cover and probably can't is all the changes that you will see in your dog along the way.

The problem with training running contacts is that you have your eye on the prize.  That is a full height DW and the dog reliably hits the yellow.  So away we go, running the dog on the low contact, raising it frequently, putting an obstacle at both ends and before you know it we have a dog running a full height DW.  But when we do this we (and the dog) miss many of the lessons that journey would have provided us.  The allure of the running contact keeps us from fully experiencing the process.

Confidence is one of the gifts in the journey.  It doesn't matter,  my re-trained dog or my green dog, they are both the same.  They build confidence along the way and it is NOT worth rushing it.  I know that everyone wants to get to the end of the line and *have* a running contact, but if you rush it, it is going to be harder to fix when you have problems.  Why?  They don't have the physical confidence on the equipment (I dare you to run 6 YPS on a 12" board that changes elevation twice), and the mental confidence.  The mental confidence is the really important one.

It also takes a while to develop your own internal compass for what is best for the dog each day of the training (and it changes).  This I will say is different for each dog I have trained.   Yesterday I needed to not race Hoot on the DW, today I had too.  I saw a micro-moment (you know that 10,000 hours concept) in her performance that told me I needed to change.

So, if you don't give these things a chance to develop in a controlled environment, they will be changing in a trialing environment.  Many of us know what it is like to take a dog into trialing when they don't have the foundation that they should.  And, we know what it is like to re-train that once they have established a pattern of poor performance.

I am watching the progress of a number of people through out the world training running contacts right now.  So many seem like they are trying to get to the prize as quick as possible.   But trust me when I tell you (and myself), you have to let the lessons unfold until they are all done.   You can't rush the process.

What are your foundation "go to" resources?

I sat down at my desk this morning and had to laugh.  The desk is full of DVDs, books, and printed papers.   All of these materials are about something "foundation".  This happens every time I train a new puppy.  There is no room for my day job materials.

None of this reference material is new, it all has coffee stains on it, and pages bent over/marked.  The DVDs have been burned so that I can watch them/reference them on my Galaxy Note as I have 3 minutes to burn.

So you ask, what are my foundation "go to" resources?

• Developing Jumping Skills, Linda Mecklenburg - it isn't just about jumping.
• Foundations Fun!, Silvia Trkman
• Running Contacts that Make you Smile, Silvia Trkman
• A ton of material on building drive/impulse control, Tracy Sklenar
• Many articles from OneMindDogs relating to teaching dogs/puppies

Each puppy, something else gets added to the list.

Tip, Tangle, Hoot and Split

Why do I keep referencing them?  As my brother once said to me "because I slept last night", referring to the fact that his memory was bad (I am sure mine is better).  But really, because each time I read/watch/refer to them I pick up something new.  Probably because I have grown wiser as a trainer, but also this puppy is different from the last.  I train them all a little differently.

 Some may worry that I am combining too many opinions, or too many 'systems'.  I am not worried at all.  The puppies understand motion (all of these handling materials are based on motion) and as long as I am consistent in my cues and my puppy understands them, isn't it all good?

5 Strides!

Split and I have been working on a running dog walk for the past several months.  When it got up to full height he decided to start giving me 6 strides and collecting at the end.  I am sure that he knows to hit the yellow and this was his insurance policy.  I also think that it was influenced by teaching him the Rachel Sanders box method on the AFrame.

Silvia Trkman was worried that it wouldn't hold up in a trial when he was uber excited.  So, she encouraged me to see if I could get 5 strides out of him.

So, we lowered the DW, put a carpet on the end and set everything up to get extension out of him.  Super speedy entrances and exits, I was running ahead of him, etc...

A week of running like that, clicking when I got extension and not really worrying if he didn't hit the contact zone (which was covered with carpet).  I would jackpot however if he did hit it.

Finally!  I got 5 strides out of him.  This is his session from today, carpet is faded, not quiet full height.

There is one rep where I think something surprised him and he collecting on the top, but other than that, we have progress.  Huge progress!!