Multi-Purpose Mat for jumping issues
Jumping nicely and correctly can either be the easiest possible thing - with naturally talented dogs... And yet it can be the hardest one to get - with dogs struggling with that or another aspect... Working with both ends of a spectrum sure made me appreciate naturally talented jumpers - and made me have big respect for those who helped their dogs jump better. Thanks to mat work, originally used for running contacts, helping the dogs who struggle with correct take off got a tiny bit easier though! I wanted to share two success videos of my March Foundations class where we used the mat with several dogs who had that or another jumping issue.
Martina and Iny were struggling with early take off... - And look at them now:
The war is not won yet, but the difference is amazing for sure!
And here are Ikuko and Tetra who were struggling with correct take off on turns, resulting in wrong landing spot and wide turns - the mat can sure do wonders for that problem!
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And the third one is the video in my previous post: mat definitely helped To with her jumping too. We still have tons of work ahead of us, mostly on keeping her head together rather as getting frantic and rushing things when I get ahead - that's why I did so many rear crosses and hanging back on tryouts - going slow was my motto!!! 🙂 She can sure still lose her head on pushes with blinds - or straight lines with me ahead and running hard. But the trend is good! And as long as the trend is good, all is good! - Eventually, we'll get there! 🙂
Thank you Silvia, I dont know if I will ever get the chance to make a movie for me and Baloo, but the mat really helped us too! Only with the mat I finally understood what I was looking for and he understood what i wanted…. And thank you for sharing that To tend to rush when you are ahead. It is good to know we are not alone 🙂 Elena and Baloo
Yes, it sure made a huge difference for Baloo as well!!! And yes, handler ahead can be soooo exciting!!! 🙂
So interesting post. I just thought how you trained To to jump so much better 🙂 I think I have some what similar dog, she takes speed up and than don’t know where to jump. Is there any class that I can join to train jumping?
Piki is 2,5 years old so we can start at any point.
Yes, I can actually understand them -- not easy to jump when running full speed! Best class to work on with jumping is Foundations. I don’t have any magical solutions, but mat work can certainly help with the take off.
Ok. Foundation starts in august and we have then bad whether 😀 So not the best time to work some foundation. But maybe we could also do it in Xtreame foundation? 🙂
If we had not ”mat work”, we would have been struggling take off & turns even now.
silvia, I appreciate that you incorporated “mat work” in the foundation class.
Always trying to adjust to each dog’s needs…
We love ‘mat work’ ! 🙂
It helped us a lot with tight turns and RC !
What an interresting post! And I LOVE your video, Ikuko!!! 😀
So cool and innovative! Thank you for sharing!
Do you have a video that focuses on mat work for take-offs? My dog struggles with early take off and then gets flat and cuts down, so we drop bars. I want to go back to the start with her and fix some issues before we start trialing again. The mat work looks like it would really help her.
Not really -- the dog needs to know first 3 steps of mat work from Running Contacts DVD -- and then you can just use it for jumps as well, experimenting with distances some at first of course. We always have a couple of dogs in Foundations class working on that, so you could join next Foundations, I’m sure it can help with her jumping yes.