Clean Run - June 2013 - 49

Te set point is a very powerful and explosive move by the dog,
which is why it is taught from a stationary position without forward
speed. Te dog’s stride becomes longer once he begins to
meet jumps at real speed, making the arc of the stride lower
to the ground. Te dog’s center of gravity is directly behind his
shoulder blades. So when the dog makes a long stride much of
his length is behind his center of gravity, all of which must come
up under the dog’s center to create the correct angle of elevation,
which is approximately 45° relative to the height of the
jump. So while the set point grid offers a perfect takeoff space
for this jump, the perfect takeoff space will vary once the dog
has learned to meet jumps from a forward stride. But it’s foolish
to assume that a dog will know where that spot is without being
trained! Once again, as a rider, I would never assume that
a young horse actually “knows” where to takeoff for his jump
without many months of showing the horse where that spot is.
Setting Up the Grid
The Jump
Te set point can be offered as a single jump or as a double or
oxer (horse terminology). For the sake of training and educating
the dog, I generally prefer an ascending double where the
back bar is one jump height higher than the front bar. I also
prefer using two separate jumps to make the double rather than
a fixed double, so I have more flexibility to alter the width of
the spread as appropriate for the dog. It is a myth that the dog
requires more forward speed to perform the double cleanly; the
reality is the dog simply needs to generate more power off the
ground. Te ascending double gives the dog clear information
to get his shoulders up and out of the way very quickly whereas
a single vertical jump does not. Te double will also encourage
a nice stretch of the neck and back off the ground and through
the air, creating good form for the dog.
Te height of the jump can be set from 8" to the dog’s competition
jump height. Start with the bar low and don’t worry about
going higher until the dog is jumping with good form. Once
you begin increasing the height of the jump, make sure that you
change the height of the jump frequently during training so that
the dog pays attention to the bar. Go down as well as up with the
bar height; you don’t always want to be raising the criteria for
the dog. With practice, you can eventually work the dog up to
his competition height in this exercise.
The Stride Regulator
Te stride regulator can be a 4" PVC jump bump, a jump with
a fixed base, or a nonwinged jump set at 4"—but, remember
that you do not want to create height with the stride regulator
because it would cause too much shoulder action when we
want the dog to concentrate on using his hindquarters. You
can also use the V-bounce apparatus for set point work instead
of a simple stride regulator, which will guarantee that the dog
not load into the space on his shoulders. Plans for building a
V-bounce apparatus from PVC are available on the Clean Run
Magazine Forum page under Articles, www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=479.

June 13 | Clean Run
49

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Clean Run - June 2013

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