Foundation Jumping (2009)

Most of us spend lots of time lavishly reinforcing good contact zone performances and start-line stays, but we don't think about reinforcing and building value for the one thing the agility dog will do more of in his career than anything else-Jump!

Every course your dog will ever run is primarily made up of jumps; yet, is it the least taught and least understood skill set in agility. Because a dog can jump doesn't mean that he knows how to jump. As handlers we tend to focus on practicing drills that are designed to perfect the dog's understanding of our positional cues and handling maneuvers, and we neglect to offer the dog an opportunity to hone the skills needed to master each component involved in jumping: path, distance, appropriate takeoff place, weight transfer, angle of elevation, and height. Gridwork gives the dog an opportunity to focus on each of these components so that he can develop understanding of the task. Gridwork also gives us a training methodology for building value into the jumps, which ultimately affects how the jumps are perceived by the dog.

When a dog understands how to jump, he will run more smoothly, efficiently, and decisively; therefore, he will be faster and less prone to injury.

This 4-DVD set includes all of the jumping grids taught by Susan in her 3-day "Foundation Jumping" seminars. As a bonus, it also includes a 25-page PDF file with notes and diagrams for all of the exercises on the DVD as well as PDF files for seven articles that Susan has written for Clean Run magazine.