I have very mixed feelings about teaching jumping grids. I have talked to people who have taught them extensively and swear by them and to people who never teach them and have just as beautiful jumping patterns. Training world is divided about it as well-Linda Mecklenburg does not teach them and essentially disagree with this type of training, neither is Silvia Trkman. Just last week SG who has done grids extensively with all her dogs announced that in future she will not be teaching them.
Another part is that it is quite complicated to set them up correctly and train it. Besides that you need to set distance according the the size of your dog, adjustments are made in 6¨ increments i.e. I have to see jumping pattern my dog made, evaluate and adjust it in tiny bits. I do not have and eye to actually SEE it unless I videotape and run it in slow mo, only then I can SEE and make my adjustments well. Of course I can see basic gist, like stumbling, dropping bar etc but to see nuances....I find it is an art.
Another problem I have observed that too many people think that putting together bunch of jumps in some pattern and running dog over is grid training... people run their dogs at full speed over ¨grids¨, people run with their dogs when exercise is to be done with stationary handler... too much misunderstanding of the purpose... I do not know how helpful they could be...
as for rear end awareness I would just as easily run over homemade cavaletti- jump bars placed over smashed coke cans , ladder or even like Silvia Trkman teaches take the drawers out of the cabinet, put them in a row and let your dog run...
wish I'd taught tricks to the older dogs!
