This blog is concerning how to teach your St. Bernard jumping for agility. We are often asked, “How many jumps should I begin with?” You can’t ever have enough single jumps to teach agility. One good starting place is 4 jumps. This is the minimum number of jumps that we suggest.
Teaching a St. Bernard to jump: Begin with 4
You can teach a St. Bernard many drills, skills, and exercises with 4 jumps. 4 jumps will allow you to work 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 St. Bernard jumping left and right. You can be out of the box and send your St. Bernard or you can handle from within the box. Your jumps could be staged in a horizontal row, so that you could practice threadles and serpentines.
Teach Your St. Bernard Eight Jumps
Take the next logical step and practice eight jumps. Now you can position two boxes with one starter jump. Now you’ve increased the number of routines that you can practice with your St. Bernard. Your jump grids can be of suggested size and quantity of jumps. You can also position 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 develop a variety of skills.
Teach a St. Bernard Double and Triple Jumps
The next step is a double jump and a triple jump. You can chain two or 3 single jumps together to make your expanded jump, however having double and triple jumps in your course work is extremely helpful to work on. We’ve seen several St. Bernards run a clean course and the final obstacle is a triple and the St. Bernard is not ready for it, and bang, down comes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about St. Bernards.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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