Jump, Bravo, Jump

Tonight was another agility weaves class. I was really impressed at Bravo's progress. He was able to enter the weaves correctly on his own, much of the time, and I was able to get farther away from the poles than I would have thought possible. Oh, he still missed some poles, but all in all, better than I expected. However, you can't do weaves for an hour. It's too boring for both the dog and the handler. Even waiting for turns and mixing in some of the other equipment, we were pretty much done after 30 minutes.

So then we started working on jumps. Bravo doesn't have a problem jumping, he just doesn't really care if he knocks down the pole. I've actually never taught him to jump correctly - just pointed him at the jump and asked him to go over it. So we learned some techniques for making him a better jumper. Basically, he needs to round his back more - just as a horse does when going over a jump. He tends to jump flat, which makes it much more likely he'll hit the pole. What we learned to do is just make him jump back and forth, with treats every time, so he really loves it. Anything for food. And the best thing about is that the dog gets tired out while I mostly stand in one place.

So now in addition to making weave poles, I need a jump. My obedience ones won't work, because the crosspieces attach by velcro, and the jump only goes one way. If you hit the bar going the wrong way, the whole jump falls over. I'll have to figure out if I can make the jump, or if I need to buy them.