Jumping with the Big Dogs

Getting a giant dog to jump is not an easy task. We take it for granted that because they can they will. HA, fooey on us for believing such trivial nonsense. Unless you make it really FUN for your dog he will probably not want to do any kind of jumping drills. They just don't work with the really big dogs and if you push too hard on the subject they burn out completely. The way I look at it, a giant has only so many jumps in its lifetime and if you use them all up in classes, well that's the way it goes. I don't ask any of the giants training with me to do too many jumping drill exercises at all. I know they can jump and they know they can jump and when they have to jump they will. Giants do not have the same problems as, say, a Border Collie that tends to jump flat when they are excited. The bigest problem with the really big dogs is motivation. For most giants who are doing well in agility the motivating factor is the ALL of the equipment. With my own dogs Frieda and Avery still love to do everything but Aggie decided awhile back that she didn't want to jump anymore. She does weaves faster than any giant I have ever seen, she loves contacts (espcially the teeter-totter) and tunnels; but she will not jump anymore... not even 18". We enter her in Gamblers so she can have the fun of competing without having to do any jumps at all.

So, with the above in mind, my advice is to ONLY do jump drills once, and if it is not at the beginning of class don't do them at all. You are better off doing weave drills than jumping drills because weaves require concentration and not physical exertion and a giant body bending around the pole needs more mental coordination than physical power. Contacts are far harder for giants than jumps because of their length of stride vs. the area of the yellow zone and you are the only one who will be in the ring to make sure that he hits the right place and dosen't just take a huge stride to a 10 point fault. Hmm, that's something to work on. Tunnels are more difficult than jumps because the dogs must literally crawl through them - or stand up a bit and scratch their backs which really slows things down. Getting Avery out of a tunnel when he has a good "scratch" going is almost impossible. It took me a while to catch on to that one and the crowd really gets a kick out of me standing in the ring saying "OK, Avery, I know that feels good but come walk it! Now would be nice, Avery, not next week!!!!!" By the time he hits the dog walk we might as well be on Letterman.

Bonnie Goodfriend - March 1999