This blog is concerning teaching the Border Collie jumping 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 suitable starting point is 4 jumps. This is the least count of jumps that we recommend.
Teaching a Border Collie to jump: Begin with Four
You can teach a Border Collie many skills, drills, and exercises with 4 jumps. Four jumps will let you develop on a short jump chute or jump grid. You can setup a “box” with your jumps and practice 270 degree jumps, collection, and handling. You can teach your Border Collie jumping left and right. You can be outside the box and send your Border Collie or you can handle from the inside of the box. Your jumps could be setup in a horizontal row, so that you can practice threadles and serpentines.
Teach the Border Collie 8 Jumps
Take the next logical step and work on eight jumps. Now you can position 2 boxes with one starter jump. Now you’ve increased the number of drills that you can work on with your Border Collie. Your jump grids can be of typical size and quantity 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 develop a variety of skills.
Teach a Border Collie Double and Triple Jumps
Your next consideration is a double jump and a triple jump. You can set two or three single jumps together to make your expanded jump, however having double and triple jumps in your course work is really helpful to practice. We’ve seen many Border Collies run a clean course and the last obstacle is a triple and the Border Collie is not equipped to do it, and bang, down comes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about Border Collies.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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