JUMPING FROM A TO Z

Copyright © 1996 by M. Christine Zink and Julie Daniels

Illustrations © 1995 by Marcia R. Schlehr

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system — except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper or magazine — without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 1-888119-00-4

Cover Design by Cynthia Gillette-Fox, Ph.D., Westport, CT.

Book Design by Penny Winegartner, Lickety Split Graphics, Houston, TX.

Printing by Royal Fireworks Printing, Unionville, NY.

Printing History:

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The authors and publisher shall not be liable in the event of incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of, the furnishing, performance, or use of the instructions and suggestions contained in this book.

Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, fund raising, or educational use. For details contact:

Canine Sports Productions

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Website: www.caninesports.com

Printed in the United States of America.

DEDICATION

To Shauna, Cajun, Bannor, Tally, and Stripe —

my patient teachers.

&

To Dick and Heather —

always ready to read, listen, and help.

Acknowledgments

No book is written without the assistance of many behind-the-scene helpers. We would like to thank the dozens of people over the years who assisted in the development of this book by sharing their ideas and their observations of dogs. We also would like to acknowledge all of the dogs who gave of their patience, effort, and bodies to our research. They let us poke, prod, measure, video, and experiment with them endlessly. We are grateful to the many owners and interested human helpmates as well, especially the dedicated and beloved group from NEAT. Special thanks, as always, to our personal sounding boards, Brenda Buja, Cynthia Gillette-Fox, and Marcia Halliday. We greatly appreciate our resident mathematician/physicist, Dick Obstacle Illusion Daniels, Ph.D., and our talented videographer, Heather Daniels.

Marcia Schlehr, using her extensive knowledge of canine structure and locomotion, created the excellent illustrations from just a telephone description. Debbie Spence, Janet Lewis, and Linda Cole gave of their valuable time on short notice to proof the manuscript. Kevin Maughan shared his expertise by imaging the photographs. Our greatest thanks goes to Penny Winegartner, who initially volunteered to do a little graphic design for the book and ended up putting her creative stamp on every page.

Last, the authors want to congratulate themselves and each other for knowing when to keep arguing and when to shut up. To co-author a book in new territory is tough and exciting, but to forge a deeper respect and friendship through the process is a real accomplishment.

Table of Contents

About The Authors

Introduction

1.The ABC’s of Canine Structure

Dogs Are Not Horses

Evaluating Canine Structure

2. How Do They Do It?

The Mechanics of Jumping

The Trajectory

Jumping Styles

In-Air Modifications

On-Ground Adjustments

3. The Complete Jump Training Program

Level I - Foundation

The ABC’s of Level I

Level I Foundation Exercises

Checklist for Level I

Level II - Skill

The ABC’s of Level II

Level II Skill Exercises

Checklist for Level II

Level III - Power

The ABC’s of Level III

Level III Power Exercises

Checklist for Level III

4. What About Puppies?

Training Moments

Training Sessions

5. Conditioning The Canine Athlete

Before Starting

Physical Conditioning

Outdoor Exercises

Indoor Exercises

6. Jumping For Obedience

The Challenges of Obedience Jumping

Training Obedience Jumping

7. Jumping For Agility

Additional Commands For Agility Jumping

Additional Body Language For Agility Jumping

8. Jumping For Flyball

Speed

Bounce

Return

9. Jumping Problems

Evaluating Jumping Problems

Obedience Jumping Problems

Common Jumping Problems

The Five Most Common Training Errors in the Education of Canine Jumpers

Appendix A - Glossary

Appendix B - Where To Call

Appendix C - Imperial-Metric Conversion Table

Index

Photo by Deborah Lee Miller-Riley

About the Authors

A dog-lover all of her life, Chris Zink got her first dog, an Irish Wolfhound, the day she graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College with her D.V.M. From an initial interest in obedience mainly as a survival tactic, she gradually became fascinated with all aspects of canine performance. She currently shares her home with three Golden Retrievers and has obtained over 40 titles in obedience, agility, retrieving, and conformation on dogs of several different breeds from three groups.

While competing in canine performance events throughout Canada and the United States, she recognized a significant information gap: owners and trainers wanted to know more about how canine structure affects performance, how medical and physical conditions affect a dog’s performance, and how to keep their competition dogs healthy and injury-free. Yet little information was available. She therefore wrote Peak Performance: Coaching the Canine Athlete, a comprehensive guide to the dog as an athlete.

Chris presents Coaching the Canine Athlete seminars worldwide and regularly writes articles for dog magazines. She is also a consultant on canine sports medicine, evaluating canine structure and locomotion, providing advice on post-injury rehabilitation, and designing individualized conditioning programs for active dogs.

Nevertheless, a lifetime of jumping in both training and competition can take its toll on a dog. An obedience dog competing in both Open and Utility obedience classes in a single day will jump a total of 5 times. During a typical day of agility competition, a dog will jump at least 7 times if doing AKC^ or UKC^ agility and many times that number if competing at USDAA^ NADAC^ , or AAC^ events, which offer games classes in addition to the standard titling classes. A dog competing in a flyball tournament typically jumps 16 jumps (two heats), and many more if his team remains undefeated and he thereby advances in the competition.

During a competition dog’s career, repeated jumping definitely increases the stress on the dog’s musculoskeletal system — stress that doesn’t happen to a dog that lives his life as a couch potato. In addition, performance dogs are at increased risk for injuries as a result of jumping. Many dogs have had their athletic careers abruptly curtailed by serious bony or soft tissue^ injuries. Many more dogs are retired early due to the cumulative stress of repeated minor injuries that add up insidiously, the way that carpal tunnel syndrome sneaks up on humans. It suddenly becomes evident that the dog has a chronic problem that might have been prevented by better maintenance early on.

Given the importance of jumping to canine performance events, it is essential that owners, trainers, and handlers know as much as possible about jumping. Therefore, we undertook a study of canine jumping in an effort to answer the following questions: What are the mechanics of canine jumping? Is there one optimal jumping style? Do dogs of different shapes and sizes need to jump differently? What can be done to reduce the stress on the dog’s body during jumping and to prevent injuries due to jumping? What specific techniques should be used to train and condition dogs for the jumping required in obedience, agility, and flyball competition? What can be done to help dogs with jumping problems?

This book contains the answers to these questions as we currently understand them. We continue to be amazed at the athleticism of dogs and at their ability to accommodate to the many challenging variables in the world of performance jumping. We encourage the reader to study videos and still photographs of dogs jumping and compare them with what is presented here. Understanding jumping is a continuous process — there is so much our dogs are trying to teach us!

^ Denotes terms that appear in the Glossary.

1. The ABC’s of Canine Structure

What an exciting time for dog sports! A smorgasbord of performance activities is available to those who enjoy spending time with their dogs. Obedience, agility, herding tests, lure coursing trials, hunting tests, tracking tests, terrier trials, water rescue, flyball, sledding, draft dog tests, free-style heeling, weight-pulling competitions, Schutzhund trials, and many more events are available for dog owners who want to excel at competition, to obtain titles for their dogs, or who just like to play. While these events provide an abundance of opportunities for us to spend time with our dogs and to experience the thrill of teamwork between human and canine, they have also made us more aware of the need to understand and care for our dogs as athletes.

There is a large body of literature on the care and training of human athletes. Likewise, horse owners, trainers, and veterinarians have studied the equine athlete for centuries. But only now are we beginning to understand in detail the unique nature of canine structure and locomotion and to learn the strengths and weaknesses of dogs as athletes. With this knowledge, the owner/trainer can design appropriate training programs for the canine sport(s) of his choice. Like their human and equine counterparts, dogs in peak condition will perform better, will be less likely to suffer sports injuries, and will remain active and healthy well into their senior years — definitely a win-win situation!

This book concentrates on jumping because it is a movement basic to agility, obedience, and flyball, and is a component of the motions that dogs use in most other canine sports. Jumping at its best is merely an uplifting extension of the canter — a smooth elevation of a gait that comes naturally to the dog. Experienced jumpers are able to make a variety of adjustments to their gait and can select the optimal trajectory for eachjump. Such dogs are more confident moving fast on unfamiliar ground because they understand where their bodies are in space and know that they will be able to meet the challenge of most obstacles they will encounter. As a result, all dogs, no matter what their performance aspirations, will benefit from jump training.

Dogs Are Not Horses

The sport of dogs is indebted to the many people that have studied equine structure and locomotion, particularly how horses jump: they have laid much of the groundwork for our understanding of canine locomotion. They have also stimulated those in the dog fancy to examine the athletic nature of the dog in more detail.

Nonetheless, dogs are not horses, and the major differences between the two species should be recognized by those of us that train dogs. We have the opportunity to develop conditioning and training exercises that are appropriate to the dog’s superior athletic abilities.

How do we know that the dog is a superior athlete to the horse? One easy way is to compare the jumping ability of these two species. Many dogs can readily jump obstacles twice their height at the withers. In contrast, no horse has yet jumped 1½ times its height.

Compare the structures of the dog and horse, and several differences are immediately apparent. For starters, the dog has more limb angulation than the horse. The effect of this increased angulation is that the dog has a greater stride length relative to its body size than the horse. The dog also has more muscular legs than the horse, whose lower legs are made up mostly of ligaments. These structural advantages provide the dog with greater running speed for its size — about 0.62 mph/lb. for the dog versus 0.04 mph/lb. for the horse. The dog runs 15 times faster!

Another feature of the canine leg that improves the dog’s athletic ability is the presence of a separate radius and ulna, the two bones that lie between the carpus (wrist) and the elbow (Fig. 1-1). Because these two bones are separate and lie parallel to each other, the front leg is able to rotate along its axis (making the same motion that we use to turn a screwdriver). This aids the dog in making fast turns, because the front legs can twist in the direction of the turn. In contrast, the horse’s ulna runs only half of the length of the radius, and the two bones are fused. Thus, the horse cannot rotate its front legs to any significant degree, making sharp turns more difficult.

Figure 1-1. Side view of bones of the front legs of the horse (left) and dog (right.) In the dog, the radius and ulna are separate, allowing for rotation of the front leg on its axis.

Another structural difference between the legs of the dog and the horse is the conformation of the feet (Fig. 1-2). Whereas the horse’s hoof is a single digit with minimal flexibility and sensation, the dog’s foot has 4 (or 5) toes that can grip and have a much greater ability to sense and adapt to the terrain. The feet add, considerably to the dog s athleticism.

Another structural difference that gives dogs the advantage in jumping is the incredible flexibility of the canine spine. Unlike horses, a dog can arch its spine so that the top of the rib-cage rises higher than the withers or the croup (Fig. 1-3). This increased spinal flexibility provides a spring-like action that assists the dog’s propulsion. The horse does not have nearly the same spinal flexibility, and this greatly affects its mobility and fluidity overjumps. Dogs are also superior to horses in their ability to flex the spine from side to side, providing them with the ability to make quick turns.

Figure 1-2. The horse’s foot (left) has just one digit, whereas the dog’s foot (right) has four or five. This gives the dog greater ability to grip and adapt to different kinds of footing.

Because of their reduced spinal flexibility, horses are not capable of the wide array of take-off spots, quick turns, and nimble adjustments in stride that our canine athletes can master.

Figure 1-3. The dog has much greater spinal flexibility than the horse.

Evaluating Canine Structure

Body Type

Understanding the dog as an athlete is made somewhat difficult by the tremendous amount of variation among the many dog breeds. During the past several centuries, man has taken advantage of the dog’s plastic genetic makeup^ , short gestation period, and large litter size to mold his best friend into a variety of shapes and sizes. It is astounding that the Irish Wolfhound and the Dachshund are not only members of the same species, but that both are members of the Hound group.

It is not hard to evaluate canine structure if you remember one main tenet: every part of the canine body that contributes to locomotion is there for a reason. This relationship is often expressed by the maxim form follows function. Each bump on every bone is there because it has a muscle or ligament attached to it or because it has to absorb the dog’s weight while standing or moving. For example, the pads on the backs of a dog’s front legs (accessory carpal pads) may look like they are not being used, but they are used during running and jumping, every time the dog bears all of its weight on one front leg.

If you enjoy building or repairing things, then you already understand some of the principles of canine structure. For example, you know that diagonal supports are necessary to stabilize the top, L-shaped corners of a swing set, or the unit will sway from side to side. In the same way, the ABC’s of canine structure can be more easily understood by examining the function of each part.

To begin an evaluation of your canine friend, first consider his¹ overall size and body type. Is he light-boned (ectomorphic) like a slim marathon runner? The Afghan Hound and the Italian Greyhound are ectomorphic breeds. Is he heavy-boned (endomorphic) like a heavy-set football player? The Clumber Spaniel and the St. Bernard are endomorphic dogs. The majority of dogs (and humans) are more moderately built (mesomorphic). Mesomorphic breeds include all of the Retrievers, the Border Terrier, the Dalmatian, and the many breeds of dogs that are of medium build with moderate bone.

In addition to these main body types, man has selectively bred dogs to be larger (gigantism) or smaller (dwarfism), and these modifications may help or hinder jumping ability. Within the giant breeds, dogs may be ectomorphic, such as the Borzoi, mesomorphic, such as the Great Dane, or endomorphic, such as the St. Bernard. Breeds that have been bred for small size fall into two categories, both of which have their human counterparts. Those, such as Basset Hounds, Corgis, and Dachshunds, that have the head and body of a larger dog but have shortened legs are termed achondroplastic dwarfs. Those such as Toy Poodles and Papillons with heads, bodies, and legs in proportion to each other are called pituitary dwarfs. Giant breeds and achondroplastic dwarfs are at a disadvantage in jumping, while pituitary dwarfs have a distinct advantage.

One of the easiest ways to objectively evaluate a dog’s suitability for performance events is to determine his body weight-to-height ratio. The heavier a dog is in relation to his height, the more effort will be required during locomotion, and the more stress there will be on the musculoskeletal system. Thus, although a Clumber Spaniel and an Afghan Hound may weigh the same, the Clumber Spaniel carries that weight on a shorter frame and will therefore have to exert more effort to move and especially to jump, an exercise that involves resisting the effects of gravity to become airborne and then succumbing to the effects of gravity while landing. Table 1-1 gives sample weightheight ratios for a number of individual dogs of a variety of breeds. Weightheight data for the horse and cat are given for comparison.

Table 1-1. Sample weight:height ratios for