This post is about teaching the Barbet to jump for agility. We are often asked, “What number of jumps should I begin with?” You can’t ever have too many single jumps to learn agility. A good starting point is 4 jumps. This is the least number of jumps that we recommend.
How to Teach the Barbet to jump: Begin with Four
You can teach the Barbet many skills, drills, and exercises with 4 jumps. Four jumps will let you work on a short jump chute or jump grid. You can position a “box” with your jumps and work on collection, handling, and 270 degree jumps. You can teach your Barbet jumping left and right. You can be out of the box and send your Barbet or you can handle from within the box. Your jumps can be setup in a lateral line, so that you can practice threadles and serpentines.
Teach a Barbet 8 Jumps
Go to the next step and get eight jumps. Now you can setup two boxes with 1 introductory jump. You’ve now multiplied the number of drills that you can try with your Barbet. Your jump grids can be of recommended size and number of jumps. You could also setup the jumps in a circle with the jump bars normal to the circle or on the perimeter of the circle. This pattern also allows you to train a variety of drills.
Teaching Your Barbet Double and Triple Jumps
Your next step is a double jump and a triple jump. You could chain 2 or three single jumps together to make your expanded jump, however having double and triple jumps in your course work is especially helpful to practice. We’ve seen many Barbets run a perfect course and the last obstacle is a triple and the Barbet is not prepared to do it, and bang, down comes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about Barbets.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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