This post is concerning how to teach the Flat-Coated Retriever jumping for agility. We are often asked, “How many jumps should I start with?” You can never have enough solo jumps to teach agility. A good starting point is four jumps. This is the minimum count of jumps that we recommend.
Teaching a Flat-Coated Retriever to jump: Start with Four
You can teach your Flat-Coated Retriever a multitude of exercises, drills, and skills with four jumps. Four jumps will let you 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 Flat-Coated Retriever jumping left and right. You could be outside the box and send your Flat-Coated Retriever or you can handle from within the box. Your jumps can be staged in a lateral line, so that you could practice serpentines and threadles.
Teach a Flat-Coated Retriever 8 Jumps
Go to the next step and work on eight jumps. Now you can position 2 boxes with 1 introductory jump. Now you’ve increased your routines that you can work on with your Flat-Coated Retriever. Your jump grids can be of typical size and number of jumps. You can even position your 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 work on a variety of drills.
Teach Your Flat-Coated Retriever Double and Triple Jumps
The next step is a double jump and a triple jump. You can chain 2 or three solo jumps together to make your expanded jump, but having double and triple jumps in your course work is really valuable to practice. We’ve seen many Flat-Coated Retrievers run a perfect course and the last obstacle is a triple and the Flat-Coated Retriever is not equipped for it, and bang, down goes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about Flat-Coated Retrievers.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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