This article is about teaching a Maremma Sheepdog to jump for agility. We are often asked, “What number of jumps is best to start with?” You can never have too many solo jumps to practice agility. A good starting point is 4 jumps. This is the absolute minimum count of jumps that we recommend.
Teaching the Maremma Sheepdog jumping: Begin with 4
You can teach the Maremma Sheepdog many skills, drills, and exercises with four jumps. 4 jumps will let you work on a short jump chute or jump grid. You can practice on a “box” with your jumps and work on collection, handling, and 270 degree jumps. You can teach your Maremma Sheepdog jumping left and right. You can be outside the box and send your Maremma Sheepdog or you can handle from the inside of the box. Your jumps could be setup in a lateral row, so that you could practice serpentines and threadles.
Teach the Maremma Sheepdog Eight Jumps
Go to the next logical step and develop 8 jumps. Now you can position 2 boxes with 1 introductory jump. Now you’ve increased the number of exercises that you can practice with your Maremma Sheepdog. Your jump grids can be of recommended size and quantity 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 enables you to develop a variety of skills.
Teaching the Maremma Sheepdog Double and Triple Jumps
The next step is a double jump and a triple jump. You can position 2 or 3 single jumps together to make your expanded jump, but having double and triple jumps in your course work is extremely valuable to work on. We’ve seen many Maremma Sheepdogs run a perfect course and the final obstacle is a triple and the Maremma Sheepdog is not prepared for it, and bang, down comes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about Maremma Sheepdogs.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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