MorningBrew
Forums Regular
Hi!
Brew has been in agility and agility prep classes since then end of December and now, we are in our second Foundations course which teaches some basic handling and getting Brew used to different obstacles. In class, we've most recently been working on accel/decel exercises combined with front crosses/wraps and obstacles have only been in straight lines. The teacher has been teaching things prettily slowly since a lot of people in the class don't practice at home, but she has been pushing me ahead of the class and I might move to a different, more advanced class at some point (idk). That's why I've been doing some exercises on my own (nothing that deviates from the teacher's training).
I have 3 bar jumps (that can combine into double and triple jumps) and 2 tunnels at home so I've worked on accel/decel, front crosses/wrap, tunnel work (curved, angled approaches, >90 degree exits), slice jumps, and double jumps. Right now, the bar jumps are consistently at 12 inches (with a rarity of dropped poles) and I want to work towards the 16 inch height (he's 15.3 at the withers).
For the heck of it, my dad kept throwing a ball over a 16 inch jump and he consistently went over it, but in a formal training scenario, he would run straight towards the jump and deviate around it when about 2-3 feet in front of it. Strangely enough, he will extend, slice, and wrap over the double jump at 15 inches. I was planning on increasing the height an inch every few days starting at 12 in hopes that it won't be a steep learning curve. I think the problem is that the double jump has the cross bars underneath so there's no trouble, but my single jumps are set up with a fixed bar at 2 inches. When Brew ran towards the 16 inch jump, at around 2-3 feet away, the perspective may have changed and when he saw the huge gap, he got confused and sharply changed his path around the jump. Should I possibly change the jump configuration so that the lower bar is at around 4-6 inches? How would I then train for a one-bar jump? Also, is it okay to increase the jump heights like this in respect to his muscles and preventing injury? He is 16+ months old and has pretty strong leg muscles that he uses a lot each day to jump in the house, but I don't want to shock them.
Also, any advice on other training exercises for a novice handler and a dog with the above skill set would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Brew has been in agility and agility prep classes since then end of December and now, we are in our second Foundations course which teaches some basic handling and getting Brew used to different obstacles. In class, we've most recently been working on accel/decel exercises combined with front crosses/wraps and obstacles have only been in straight lines. The teacher has been teaching things prettily slowly since a lot of people in the class don't practice at home, but she has been pushing me ahead of the class and I might move to a different, more advanced class at some point (idk). That's why I've been doing some exercises on my own (nothing that deviates from the teacher's training).
I have 3 bar jumps (that can combine into double and triple jumps) and 2 tunnels at home so I've worked on accel/decel, front crosses/wrap, tunnel work (curved, angled approaches, >90 degree exits), slice jumps, and double jumps. Right now, the bar jumps are consistently at 12 inches (with a rarity of dropped poles) and I want to work towards the 16 inch height (he's 15.3 at the withers).
For the heck of it, my dad kept throwing a ball over a 16 inch jump and he consistently went over it, but in a formal training scenario, he would run straight towards the jump and deviate around it when about 2-3 feet in front of it. Strangely enough, he will extend, slice, and wrap over the double jump at 15 inches. I was planning on increasing the height an inch every few days starting at 12 in hopes that it won't be a steep learning curve. I think the problem is that the double jump has the cross bars underneath so there's no trouble, but my single jumps are set up with a fixed bar at 2 inches. When Brew ran towards the 16 inch jump, at around 2-3 feet away, the perspective may have changed and when he saw the huge gap, he got confused and sharply changed his path around the jump. Should I possibly change the jump configuration so that the lower bar is at around 4-6 inches? How would I then train for a one-bar jump? Also, is it okay to increase the jump heights like this in respect to his muscles and preventing injury? He is 16+ months old and has pretty strong leg muscles that he uses a lot each day to jump in the house, but I don't want to shock them.
Also, any advice on other training exercises for a novice handler and a dog with the above skill set would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
