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Author Topic : Sudden agility problem.
 Gambit Great Danes
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1/1/2017 10:13:46 PM reply with quote send message to Gambit Great Danes Object to Post   

Need some advice. I'm 6 months into agility training with my 2.5 year old Great Dane. He has never had an issue with jumping until about 3 weeks ago. He is only jumping at about 16 inches BTW. So 3 weeks ago it seems like he just totally forgot how to jump. He balks and ends up running around the jump. I've lowered the height with the same result. I've started using a tab to prevent him from running around the jump but I don't like the result. When he does jump he has terrible form, like straight up in the air and absurdly higher than the bar height and it usually results in him coming down on the jump resulting in knocked bars. I'm so confused about this that I took him to the vet since I was worried that maybe there was something physically wrong with him but the vet said he's perfect.

Has anyone experienced something like this and what advice do you have to fix the problem?
 Kalynda
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1/2/2017 7:29:40 AM reply with quote send message to Kalynda Object to Post

Sounds like a timing issue...

Do you do jumping grids? Google Susan Salo.

Good luck,
K
 chocolateteapot
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1/4/2017 12:50:03 PM reply with quote send message to chocolateteapot Object to Post

Funnily enough my youngest seems to have a jumping problem in that he jumps all wrong too - he is very, very hyper and hurls himself at the jump, leaping up from his back legs like a kangaroo and doing his best to land hind legs first!
Since he does everything at speed and is like a bull in a china shop at the best of times I thought it was a youth thing and he would grow out of it, nope, he just doesn't seem to know how to jump - I'm thinking I should take him to watch some horses show jumping!! LOL

I'll be interested to see if there is a way of getting them to improve their 'form'!!
 Tizzy Too
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1/4/2017 10:27:46 PM reply with quote send message to Tizzy Too Object to Post

With dogs, as well as horses, some dogs just aren't built to jump in good form ... straight shoulders, poor rear angulation, short pasterns, etc. You can help some of their difficulty finding by helping them find a good "distance to the fence" to maximize their conformational ability by jumping "grids" or gymnastic exercises but understand when they get into a competition ring, a lot of that is going to go the way of a lot of our training and get lost in translation to a real course. Keep your dogs at the lowest jump height to help avoid injury and always school with "bounce rails".
 chocolateteapot
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1/5/2017 11:16:27 AM reply with quote send message to chocolateteapot Object to Post

You are right in that often it is a distance thing, my lunatic tends to hurtle at the jump and completely disregard it until he either has to jump it or go through it, on the lead I can calm him down and try and judge the distance for him - but he never bothers by himself. He would come really unstuck on the six foot scale!
I.m amazed at the heights he gets in his haphazard fashion - I stupidly put the ball on the car roof while I sorted the tailgate, next thing I knew I had a dog on the roof too!
 Targaryen
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1/6/2017 7:43:53 PM reply with quote send message to Targaryen Object to Post

When my dogs start all of a sudden not being able to clear jumps or something else that is "off", I take them into the vet for a chiropractor appointment. It definitely helps. I even had my horse chiropractored multiple times when he would be uneven bending when doing dressage. You just have to be careful to choose someone knowledgeable.
 Steph
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1/8/2017 7:47:03 PM reply with quote send message to Steph Object to Post

Did his eyes get checked out too? Just a thought.
 
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1/14/2017 6:41:34 PM reply with quote send message to Object to Post edit post

Often times I see this if a green dog is asked to do more than its comfortable with, confidence takes a hit and they start refusing. OR I see this if maybe they were getting a little *too* confident and managed to scare themselves, again as the confidence takes a hit. If you've eliminated possible cause of pain, chiropractic or soft tissue, then it might be more of a confidence issue.

I'd try teaching your pup to *offer* to take jumps for a reward. You standing neutrally beside a jump with a low bar, luring your dog over and rewarding. Then fade the reward and wait for *your dog* to *offer* to take the jump without you cueing it to. Reward heavily. Put *offering* on a verbal cue ("what can you do?" Etc) and try it with other behaviors as well- tricks, obedience, agility, whatever. "What can you do?" does *not* mean "do this" but simply for your dog to do *anything*, you reward for the interactions, the engagement, the initiative. You reward for enthusiasm. This builds confidence and puts confidence on a cue. Once you have this on single obstacles you can start building it into short sequences and then into coursework, always rewarding for initiative and enthusiasm.

That's how I'd handle it anyways happy :) I have a 6 year old who was/is a stressy girl and did not handle pressure very well. Because she's also a perfectionist "pressure" could be her own idea of failure- not being able to complete a set of tasks, fearing criteria, nervous from potential of wide variables, etc. She was not a very confident girl but letting her take things at her own pace and really giving her the initiative built confidence like nothing else. Sometimes she'd get a little ahead of herself and worry herself (teeter flyoff, dropped a bar, whatever and that would cause worry) but laughing it off like it was no big deal and asking her to *offer* to do it again switched her back to confidence mode.

Chico can certainly cause different jumping, mental distress can cause jumping issues, soft tissue injury can cause problems. Those are the things I would look into happy :)
 Mustardville
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1/17/2017 7:53:48 AM reply with quote send message to Mustardville Object to Post

I second the Chiropractor. My daughter had a cardi that developed a stutter step prior to jumping and hit the bar. Vet checked and sent to chiro. helped tremendously!

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Did you know?
The sit for exam is a modified version of the Stand for Exam. It is generally used in novice level classes and requires the handler to order the dog to sit and then to move away from the dog the length of the leash. The judge will then approach the dog and pet the dog's head.