This article is about how to teach your Old English Sheepdog to jump for agility. We are often asked, “How many jumps should I begin with?” You can’t ever have too many single jumps to practice agility. A good starting place is 4 jumps. This is the minimum number of jumps that we suggest.
How to Teach Your Old English Sheepdog jumping: Begin with 4
You can teach your Old English Sheepdog a plethora of exercises, drills, and skills with four jumps. 4 jumps will let you work on a short jump chute or jump grid. You can practice on a “box” with your jumps and practice 270 degree jumps, collection, and handling. You can teach your Old English Sheepdog jumping right and left. You could be out of the box and send your Old English Sheepdog or you can handle from within the box. Your jumps could be positioned in a horizontal line, so you could practice threadles and serpentines.
Teach Your Old English Sheepdog 8 Jumps
Take the next logical step and work on 8 jumps. Now you can setup two boxes with 1 introductory jump. You’ve now increased your drills that you can work on with your Old English Sheepdog. Your jump grids can be of suggested size and quantity of jumps. You could also position your jumps in a circle with the jump bars normal to the circle or on the circumference of the circle. This setup also allows you to develop a variety of skills.
Teach Your Old English Sheepdog Double and Triple Jumps
The next consideration is a double jump and a triple jump. You could chain 2 or three solo jumps together to make your expanded jump, however having double and triple jumps in your course work is really valuable to work on. We’ve seen several Old English Sheepdogs run a flawless course and the last obstacle is a triple and the Old English Sheepdog is not ready for it, and bang, down goes the bar.
Don’t forget to check out these other articles about Old English 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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