Comments on: Limbo Dancin’ Dog (How low will they go?)

By: buffalo

buffalo — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:49:43 +0000

My wife and I teach 4H agility which has several skill levels. Our level one ( beginning level) obstacles are required to be 24″ to avoid as much as possible the leash looping over a standard and knocking it down. We also use the light practice jumps to teach in this level which adds a safety factor. Dropping the standards to 24″ has all but eliminated the problem of tangles.

By: AgilityFusion

AgilityFusion — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:04:34 +0000

I think the style they’re talking about is recalling- so the leash goes safely over the jump before the dog. I agree- I’ve done that, knocking over a jump and scaring my dog, that is.

Yes, she should definitely be checking for health related problems, though I believe that was ruled out already.

By: Robbin

Robbin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:57:38 +0000

Jumping a dog on leash can be dangerous and if something goes wrong, can make him even less inclined to jump or even injure him. The leash can hit the upright (or your hand has to wave over his head while he’s jumping, which can be at least distracting and even frightening to some dogs) or you can accidentally pull the dog off course and cause him to hit the jump or land off-balance, again resulting in fear or injury. Best to set up the environment to guide the dog to the jump with ring gating or something similar and then let them jump naturally.

While Staffies do have a sense of humor and he may be entirely acting for applause, you should also check out any physical problems that might cause him to duck under rather than jump over the bar…

By: SmartysMom

SmartysMom — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:32:25 +0000

The number one rule of positive reinforcement based training is that you have to get the trainee to do it right so you can reward. That means setting the exercise up so that that the right response is the only possible response is critical. Doing it right, the first time and every time is the fastest way to the dog learning what you want.

So, in addition to putting the pole on the ground, keeping the dog on a leash until they are reliably following your hand is also a must. You can’t teach the dog to jump high until you’ve taught him to jump.

Taking the dog off leash, setting the jumps high enuf to go under and then having the dog do it wrong repeatedly is going to at worst confuse and discourage the dog so he doesn’t want to go near the jump, and almost as bad, teach him the wrong thing.

Look at it this way. Tevo offered a variety of behaviors at the jump. No, he doesn’t know what you want, he can only deduce that based on which behaviors are rewarded. He gets rewarded (with laughter) for going under. The little light bulb goes on and voila, under he goes, everytime. Smart dog.

As a by-the-by, the formal obedience doesn’t include the bar jump until Utility. They start with a solid jump so there is no confusion.