This week we are going to work on teaching the dogs to have a nice rounded jump, and also not to touch their jumps.  

There are three parts to this - 

 

1. Shape the dogs to take the jump and bend - Grab a clicker and a handful of food and sit down next to a jump. It is best to do this on a single upright and not a wing. Find a quiet spot to do this. If you have a room with carpet or rubber matting it will work well. Only click the dog for clean jumping and not touching anything. Reward the dog in at where you are sitting, so you are encouraging them to bend around the corner and land with their heads low. Start on a low height, but you may need to have a bit of height so they don't try to just walk over it. Build up to full height. 

 

2. Change the dogs approach angle and distance - Once the dogs are doing the above and offering to jump, you can throw a reward to a spot away from the jump and then they will come in from a different angle to take the jump. This teaches them to come in from all different angles and distances. Keen does a good demo of why this one in particular, doesn't work well in the grass lol But if you have to work in grass, then just make sure to use food that is easy to find when you throw it. 

 

3. Change handler position - both of the above can be done with you moving on to kneeling next to the jump and then you standing. Once standing, you can then change your position near the jump always rewarding the dogs as they bend back to you and throw the food on the floor where you were when you started the exercise. You can see that Keen struggles with this bit. If you have done any jump proofing, where they aren't meant to take the jump until they hear a cue this is a little tough at first. But you can give a release word if you think you need to. 

 

4. Multiple wraps - I don't like to do too much of this because it seems very hard for the dogs, but try a little bit of this once they are doing all of the above well. 

 

Also, continue on with the FW exercises particularly any that were weak for your dogs. Make sure they can slow down well out of tunnels or wing wraps. These recalls will be added over jumps shortly, so it's important they do it well on the flat.