The Ideal Dog Training With 4 To 8 Jumps

By Martin Elmer

We are often asked, "How many jumps should I start with?" You can never have too many single jumps to practice agility. A good starting place is four jumps. This is the absolute minimum number of jumps that we recommend.

You can teach a variety of skills, drills, and exercises with four jumps. Four jumps will allow you to work on a short jump chute or jump grid. You can setup a "box" with your jumps and practice handling, collection, and 270 degree jumps.

You can teach your dog jumping left and right. You can be outside the box and send your dog or you can handle from the inside of the box. Your jumps can be setup in a horizontal line, so that you can practice serpentines and treadles.

After the four jumps come the eight jumps. In this variation you can setup two boxes and have one introductory jump. Now you can train your dog with multiplied drills. And your jump grids can also be of suggested size and quantity of jumps.

Another variation is to setup the jumps in a circle with jump bars vertical to the circle or on the edge of the circle. This variation can teach the dog a lot of new skills.

Your next consideration is a double jump and a triple jump. You could set two or three single jumps together to make your expanded jump, but having double and triple jump in your course work is really valuable to practice. We've seen many dogs run a clean course and the last obstacle is a triple and the dog is not prepared for it, and bang, down comes the bar.

If you really want to be ahead of the pack, you should have two sets up eight jumps. Because you can keep the jump grip at all times, it is the ultimate in training. The jumps can be separated from the course work. And when you then includes your double and triple jumps, it is possible the practice all the jumping drills and skills to get the "Qs". - 31866

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