Renee&Jake
Super Boxer
For those of you that are interested in some Agility training, I wanted to give you some idea of proper jump training, in a 24" dog.
If you are doing this at home, you will need 3-5 jumps, which can be made with PVC - I made a set of 4 for $20. I think you can find a variety of plans at agilityboxer.com.
A dogs' stride is 3 times his jump height, so a 24" dog has a stride of 72" a 20" dog has a stride of 60" you will want 2 strides between jumps, so a 24" dog will need the jumps 144" or 12' apart, 20" dog needs jumps 120" or 10' feet apart.
The front feet leave the ground, the back feet push off the legs tuck up and under as the back arcs and head drops. This allows the dog to land with the front feet at almost the same time, at least 24" past the jump and the back legs untuck and land last.
This takes a lot of pounding off the front end, and helps prevent refusals and knocked bars.
In starting training, the jumps should be no higher than elbow height, and set with the bar on the landing side, so when it gets hit, it will fall off easily.
Set the dog in a wait 12 feet from jump #1, and walk to the end of the jumps. Call your dog "come" and before they reach each jump, call "Go jump" or "Go hup" or "over" (whichever command you have selected). When the dog reaches you, praise and release. If you need to, start with one jump at a time and work in the 2 -3 -4 sequence.
This also works well for teaching the go out, as your dog becomes more familiar with this conditioning, you can wait at the start line with your dog and call him out over 1 jump at a time. When you are getting them through 3-4 jumps with you at the start line, you are going to be leaps and bounds ahead of other classmates, if you take classes.
If you are just beginning Agility, I would not raise that bar more than 1 inch a week, TOPS. This is not an exercise to rush through and if you go too fast, your Boxer will begin to stretch out their back legs, risking injury. This process should take months, not days or weeks. Since Agility training in itself takes a year or more to prepare, you have plenty of time. If you have a trainer that teaches this, you are very lucky, most do not, and many dogs in agility do not jump properly, but instead "throw" themselves over.
Good Luck and Happy Training!
If you are doing this at home, you will need 3-5 jumps, which can be made with PVC - I made a set of 4 for $20. I think you can find a variety of plans at agilityboxer.com.
A dogs' stride is 3 times his jump height, so a 24" dog has a stride of 72" a 20" dog has a stride of 60" you will want 2 strides between jumps, so a 24" dog will need the jumps 144" or 12' apart, 20" dog needs jumps 120" or 10' feet apart.
The front feet leave the ground, the back feet push off the legs tuck up and under as the back arcs and head drops. This allows the dog to land with the front feet at almost the same time, at least 24" past the jump and the back legs untuck and land last.
This takes a lot of pounding off the front end, and helps prevent refusals and knocked bars.
In starting training, the jumps should be no higher than elbow height, and set with the bar on the landing side, so when it gets hit, it will fall off easily.
Set the dog in a wait 12 feet from jump #1, and walk to the end of the jumps. Call your dog "come" and before they reach each jump, call "Go jump" or "Go hup" or "over" (whichever command you have selected). When the dog reaches you, praise and release. If you need to, start with one jump at a time and work in the 2 -3 -4 sequence.
This also works well for teaching the go out, as your dog becomes more familiar with this conditioning, you can wait at the start line with your dog and call him out over 1 jump at a time. When you are getting them through 3-4 jumps with you at the start line, you are going to be leaps and bounds ahead of other classmates, if you take classes.
If you are just beginning Agility, I would not raise that bar more than 1 inch a week, TOPS. This is not an exercise to rush through and if you go too fast, your Boxer will begin to stretch out their back legs, risking injury. This process should take months, not days or weeks. Since Agility training in itself takes a year or more to prepare, you have plenty of time. If you have a trainer that teaches this, you are very lucky, most do not, and many dogs in agility do not jump properly, but instead "throw" themselves over.
Good Luck and Happy Training!