# Running Jump or "Spring from Sit" Jump?



## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

If you go to "cleanrun.com" they have a "video on demand" section. You can get the Susan Salo jumping videos for a fraction of the price of the DVD's. The Foundation one is only $15, it's about 4 hours long and you get to view it on your computer for 2 weeks.

Almost all (if not all ) of her foundation exercises are started from a Sit close to the jump. The point is to teach good set points and get the dog to put the weight over his back end. 

The other current "popular" jumping method is Linda Mechlenburg. And while her first exercise (or one of?) is not starting from a sit, the dog is RIGHT in front of the jump too. 

If your dog is jumping bars with 10" to spare... you would probably benefit from using one or the other jumping programs (or both). Though many do other stuff and dogs are fine.... But I'm really enjoying all of the specific exercises and I think it has paid off very well with my dogs, esp my young dog who primarily learned with these resources. (Well...I learned... but... he benefited from it! He DID eat a Susan Salo article as a puppy and I claim that's why he's so great at jumping!).

I hope this gives you a few things to think about... I -really- like the Susan Salo foundation DVD for the content. It's pretty slow paced, but I took good notes and often refer to them.

And to answer your bolded question: Others here who have been in the dog game longer might have better answers... I would suspect that there just wasn't a lot of thought to teaching jumping as a skill OTHER than "go over the bar and between the standards" whereas now, with the development of the various sports, we want the dog to be efficient, have a proper arc, maximize speed, perform at an overall higher speed, head low, rounded body, etc.... Development of the sport and an increase of the body of knowledge....


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## rappwizard (May 27, 2009)

When I went through puppy agility with Mac, our instructor taught jumps, very low, practically at ground level, with the dog on lead, and with our command to say jump as we crossed over the jump together. It was put a bit higher, but since they were pups, not that high.

We then were taught to have the pups sit, and then we would go out past a jump, and then give a command to jump so that the pup would head towards the jump and jump. We were never taught "running jumps." Hope that makes some sense! I played around in puppy agility until Mac was about a year old and then started conformation and some basic obedience--I'm hoping to get back into agility and obedience once we're done with a tracking title later this year.


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## kgiff (Jul 21, 2008)

I highly recommend the foundation jumping videos. (And agree with everything RedDogs said.)

We did both kinds of jumping in our foundation class. Actually neither were really from a _running_ start. The dog would always start from a sit. Some of the exercises the dog was far enough back that they would walk/run a few steps before the first jump and others the dog was set up so that the jump would begin as he was getting up from his sit. We did grid work and we did single jump work and v-jump work (



). While they were young, this was done either over humps (half a pvc pipe) or jumps at a lower height than their elbows. 

I still do a lot of one jump drills that involve setting the dog right in front of the jump.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

You don't want speed w/o proper technique. And yes, there really should be technique to jumping - other than just not knocking the bar. A lot of dogs who focus on speed too early learn to jump long and flat vs. collecting. Long and flat is WAY more likely to drop bars.


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