Jump work

The sun was shining, the air was a bit cool and Taz was at the agility field for a small jump work session today.  There were 4 handlers and 5 dogs present.  A nice small group!  Taz was the second dog to practice.  His brother Flash got to go first because they only had to learn to jump 22 inches and the distance between the jumps was 8 feet.  The bigger dogs needed 10 feet between jumps.  Flash got to the point of having two bars up at 22 inches.  He has already started trialing but needs some polishing on his jumping.  He is a real kangaroo!

Taz was next up to try jumping.  The 4 other dogs stayed in the ring about 10 feet back with their handlers seated.  He did not even bat an eye at them!  I lined him up, put him in a stay and proceeded to run him over the 5 jumps at 16 inches.  All bars stayed up!  One jump was increased to 22 inches and double barred.  Back to the start and off we go!  He left that bar up!  Repeat exercise on the other side.  Success!  I did find out that when Taz looks back for the toy, he knocks bars down!  We got him up to two jumps at 22 inches with success!  He even shifted his weight nicely and landed quietly!!  We ended there as it was quite hot out.  I put him back into the SUV with some water for a break.

The other dogs got their turn.  Spike was awesome and will have no trouble joining Pepper at 26 inches!   Before we left for the day, Flash and Taz had another go at it!  Taz finished the session off by having all 5 jumps at 22 inches AND managed to leave them all up!  SUCCESS!  We now have a good foundation for continued success!  Some more one jump work is needed for forward drive and then to teach him collection. Starters trial next year, here we come!