Clean Run Magazine - October 2007 - 15

Foundation Work for Jumping By Susan Salo Recently I taught two, one-day seminars for problem jumpers; and while that is not a surprising topic for me to address, it was a surprise for many to watch the performances because in the two days of working with problem jumpers there was only one dropped bar. While most of the foundation work for jumping does not have too many places where full jump height is required of the dog, I still want people to be aware that motion from the human is often the cause of those dropped bars. We are pressuring the dogs for speed when they are incapable of producing it reliably. I often make the comment while teaching that one of the biggest differences between people who train horses and those who train dogs is that as horse trainers, we are literally physically attached to the outcome of the training and as such, we take great care to make sure each layer of the foundation is solid. If the horse makes a big mistake, the human riders often pay a price for it with their body. When I was riding competitively, my trainer used to always tell people that the jumps were their flatwork personified, meaning that if you failed to pay attention to the details of the flatwork then your jumps suffered for it. For many, once jumping is possible, the flatwork then becomes boring or monotonous. Yet it has always held true that the details perfected through flatwork make the jumping performance better. When young horses © Doghouse Arts are brought along in their careers, speed is not encouraged at too early a stage. The horse needs to have the fundamentals well in place long before we push him for speed. We keep the horse steady and execute each jump well, understanding that the shorter the stride, the greater the balance and the easier the function of weight transfer for angle of elevation are for a successful jumping effort. I was then very pleased, when I learned of Greg Derrett’s methodology where he teaches the dog to follow his body language on the flat away from the equipment or jumps (flatwork). At seminars he often states that if you have trouble with a particular handling maneuver, you should return to the basics of box work to fix the problem. I feel strongly that all this foundation work is of great importance and help to dogs in understanding the task of reading our bodies while performing their work. If the dog is overly handler focused, he cannot perform his task with great precision since he has to read both task and handler all at the same time. The dog is the one that is expected to multitask on course while the human simply needs to be quick on her feet and set the lines. If, in a perfect world, you first teach the dogs their jumping skills separate from handling, and next you teach their positional cues away from the equipment, and then you put the two pieces together, the result is truly beautiful and represents a dog with great understanding. October 07 | Clean Run 15

Clean Run Magazine - October 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - October 2007