This post is about teaching a Norfolk Spaniel to jump for agility. Often we are asked, “What number of jumps is best to start with?” You can never have enough solo jumps to practice agility. A suitable starting point is 4 jumps. This is the least number of jumps that we suggest.
Teaching Your Norfolk Spaniel jumping: Begin with 4
You can teach the Norfolk Spaniel a variety of exercises, skills, and drills with four jumps. Four jumps will let you work on a short jump chute or jump grid. You can practice on a “box” with your jumps and practice 270 degree jumps, collection, and handling. You can teach your Norfolk Spaniel jumping left and right. You can be outside the box and send your Norfolk Spaniel or you can handle from the inside of the box. Your jumps could be setup in a lateral line, so that you could practice serpentines and threadles.
Teach a Norfolk Spaniel Eight Jumps
Take the next logical step and work on 8 jumps. Now you can position 2 boxes with 1 introductory jump. You’ve now increased your drills that you can work on with your Norfolk Spaniel. Your jump grids can be of suggested size and number of jumps. You could even position the jumps in a circle with the jump bars normal to the circle or on the perimeter of the circle. This pattern also enables you to work on a variety of drills.
Teaching the Norfolk Spaniel Double and Triple Jumps
Your next level is a double jump and a triple jump. You could chain two or three single jumps together to make your expanded jump, however having double and triple jumps in your course work is extremely helpful to work on. We’ve seen many Norfolk Spaniels run a clean course and the last obstacle is a triple and the Norfolk Spaniel is not prepared for it, and bang, down comes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about Norfolk Spaniels.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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