This post is concerning how to teach a Croatian Sheepdog to jump for agility. We are often asked, “How many jumps should I start with?” You can’t ever have enough single jumps to learn agility. One suitable starting place is 4 jumps. This is the least quantity of jumps that we recommend.
Teaching the Croatian Sheepdog to jump: Begin with Four
You can teach the Croatian Sheepdog many exercises, drills, and skills with 4 jumps. Four jumps will allow you to develop on a short jump chute or jump grid. You can practice on a “box” with your jumps and work on handling, collection, and 270 degree jumps. You can teach your Croatian Sheepdog jumping left and right. You could be outside the box and send your Croatian Sheepdog or you can handle from within the box. Your jumps can be staged in a horizontal line, so you could practice serpentines and threadles.
Teach Your Croatian Sheepdog Eight Jumps
Take the next logical step and practice 8 jumps. Now you can position two boxes with 1 starter jump. Now you’ve multiplied your exercises that you can work on with your Croatian Sheepdog. Your jump grids can be of suggested size and quantity of jumps. You can even setup the jumps in a circle with the jump bars perpendicular to the circle or on the perimeter of the circle. This pattern also allows you to develop a variety of drills.
Teaching the Croatian Sheepdog Double and Triple Jumps
Your next step is a double jump and a triple jump. You could position two or three solo jumps together to make your expanded jump, but having double and triple jumps in your course work is especially valuable to work on. We’ve seen several Croatian Sheepdogs run a perfect course and the final obstacle is a triple and the Croatian Sheepdog is not equipped to do it, and bang, down comes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about Croatian 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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