This blog is about teaching the Icelandic Sheepdog jumping for agility. We are often asked, “How many jumps should I start with?” You can’t ever have enough solo jumps to learn agility. A suitable starting point is 4 jumps. This is the least quantity of jumps suggested.
How to Teach Your Icelandic Sheepdog jumping: Begin with 4
You can teach a Icelandic Sheepdog many skills, drills, and exercises with 4 jumps. Four jumps will let you develop on a short jump chute or jump grid. You can position a “box” with your jumps and work on handling, collection, and 270 degree jumps. You can teach your Icelandic Sheepdog jumping right and left. You can be out of the box and send your Icelandic Sheepdog or you can handle from the inside of the box. Your jumps could be setup in a horizontal row, so that you can practice serpentines and threadles.
Teach Your Icelandic Sheepdog Eight Jumps
Go to the next step and get 8 jumps. Now you can setup 2 boxes with one introductory jump. Now you’ve multiplied the number of exercises that you can work on with your Icelandic Sheepdog. Your jump grids can be of typical size and number of jumps. You could even setup the jumps in a circle with the jump bars normal to the circle or on the perimeter of the circle. This setup also enables you to develop a variety of skills.
Teach Your Icelandic Sheepdog Double and Triple Jumps
The next level is a double jump and a triple jump. You can chain two or three single jumps together to make your expanded jump, but having double and triple jumps in your course work is especially beneficial to work on. We’ve seen several Icelandic Sheepdogs run a flawless course and the final obstacle is a triple and the Icelandic Sheepdog is not equipped for it, and bang, down goes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about Icelandic 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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