This post is about how to teach your English Coonhound to jump for agility. We are often asked, “How many jumps is best to begin with?” You can’t ever have too many solo jumps to practice agility. One suitable starting point is four jumps. This is the minimum count of jumps suggested.
How to Teach the English Coonhound to jump: Begin with Four
You can teach your English Coonhound a multitude of exercises, skills, and drills with 4 jumps. Four jumps will let you develop on a short jump chute or jump grid. You can practice on a “box” with your jumps and practice handling, collection, and 270 degree jumps. You can teach your English Coonhound jumping right and left. You could be out of the box and send your English Coonhound or you can handle from the inside of the box. Your jumps can be setup in a horizontal row, so you could practice threadles and serpentines.
Teach Your English Coonhound Eight Jumps
Go to the next logical step and work on eight jumps. Now you can position two boxes with 1 introductory jump. You’ve now increased your routines that you can work on with your English Coonhound. Your jump grids can be of suggested size and quantity of jumps. You can even setup the jumps in a circle with the jump bars perpendicular to the circle or on the perimeter of the circle. This pattern also allows you to work on a variety of drills.
Teaching Your English Coonhound Double and Triple Jumps
The next level is a double jump and a triple jump. You could set 2 or 3 single jumps together to make your expanded jump, however having double and triple jumps in your course work is extremely beneficial to work on. We’ve seen many English Coonhounds run a perfect course and the last obstacle is a triple and the English Coonhound is not ready for it, and bang, down goes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about English Coonhounds.Was this post helpful? If so, please take a minute to Tweet and Share below on Facebook. I would also love to know your thoughts so leave me a comment 🙂
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