This particular task card is from our Agility Jump Skills Task Pack. So, I again used my Nancy Gyes' Alphabet Drills book for my sequence muse and chose her "Z" drill but put my own spin on it. Ocean also has had some issues with gauging his striding on long, straight lines of jumps. He tends to get one speed going and won't deviate from that speed even if he needs to collect to get over a jump. He's big enough that he can take a bar down with barely noticing he's done it....or he's athletic enough that he can do some crazy bounce jumps with no stride to get over the next jump. Neither of those, I really want him to do. I ended up taking four jumps putting them into a straight line, at different angles, and at varying distances between the jumps.
The first time I sent Ocean through, the first jump was not a problem. But, he had built enough speed and momentum that he bounced (this means, he landed and the jumped from that spot with no running stride) between jump 2 and 3 and then flung himself over jump 4. Okay...not really what I was looking for. I've begun to teach Ocean a verbal collection cue which was unintentionally taught to Lars over the years of trialing and training. Lars' word for collection was "Easy." I've been using "easy" more and more with Ocean when I am decelerating and I saw that Thursday with this task card...he's actually starting to understand the verbal cue.
I started Ocean over at the start of the line of jumps...and I used "easy" in the place where he started to think about bounce jumping. And, wouldn't you know it, he powered down a couple of notches and actually put in a stride between 2 and 3, chipped in nicely at the take off and got himself over jump 4 with control. I just about fell over. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I sent him through again coming away from the house and used my easy command...and he was able to collect and put in a stride. Good Boy! So, I brought him down to what was jump 4 and made that jump 1 and ran towards the house. I wanted to see if Ocean could generalize what he had just done going the opposite direction. No...he didn't and he bounce jumped 2 and 3 again. No biggie. We went back to the new jump 1 and this time I had told him "easy" again before he entered jump 2 and 3...and he collected his stride and chipped in at take off. He is starting to understand that verbal collection cue!
We spent the rest of this training session going through the 4 jumps with me changing the severity of the angles and the distances between the jumps so that way Ocean really had to think about what he was doing instead of becoming patterned to the same striding and angles. The "easy" cue was used each pass and he was listening and was changing his stride and not bounce jumping jumps. (I do have a bounce jumps task in the Jumping Skills Task Pack. That is more like a grid exercise to teach a dog to power from the rear to get lift over a jump. The jumps are set close together and there isn't room for a stride or two in between jumps. I just wanted to clarify why there is a time and a place for bounce jumping...this line of jumps O and I were working on here was not the time or the place.)
I cannot tell you how happy I was that we ended up working this skill a couple of days before our USDAA trial this past weekend. Our P1 Starters Jumpers course was loaded full of jumps at funky angles. If we hadn't just worked this two days before, I probably would have had a stroke when I saw the course map.
I started Ocean over at the start of the line of jumps...and I used "easy" in the place where he started to think about bounce jumping. And, wouldn't you know it, he powered down a couple of notches and actually put in a stride between 2 and 3, chipped in nicely at the take off and got himself over jump 4 with control. I just about fell over. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I sent him through again coming away from the house and used my easy command...and he was able to collect and put in a stride. Good Boy! So, I brought him down to what was jump 4 and made that jump 1 and ran towards the house. I wanted to see if Ocean could generalize what he had just done going the opposite direction. No...he didn't and he bounce jumped 2 and 3 again. No biggie. We went back to the new jump 1 and this time I had told him "easy" again before he entered jump 2 and 3...and he collected his stride and chipped in at take off. He is starting to understand that verbal collection cue!
We spent the rest of this training session going through the 4 jumps with me changing the severity of the angles and the distances between the jumps so that way Ocean really had to think about what he was doing instead of becoming patterned to the same striding and angles. The "easy" cue was used each pass and he was listening and was changing his stride and not bounce jumping jumps. (I do have a bounce jumps task in the Jumping Skills Task Pack. That is more like a grid exercise to teach a dog to power from the rear to get lift over a jump. The jumps are set close together and there isn't room for a stride or two in between jumps. I just wanted to clarify why there is a time and a place for bounce jumping...this line of jumps O and I were working on here was not the time or the place.)
I cannot tell you how happy I was that we ended up working this skill a couple of days before our USDAA trial this past weekend. Our P1 Starters Jumpers course was loaded full of jumps at funky angles. If we hadn't just worked this two days before, I probably would have had a stroke when I saw the course map.
Hopefully, this blog post will help give some ideas on how to work "Angled Jumps" when they get pulled out of your tasks grab bag!! Happy training everyone!!
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