Description
“Nick’s Boot Camp 101” – a Jumping and Handling Program for Technical Sequences in Dog Agility
This course has 6 weeks of lessons with 3-4 exercises in each lesson designed to give you the foundation blueprint for achieving efficient and safe turns, even on technical courses. You will build your dog’s understanding of how to physically manage turns on technical sequences including wraps, threadles, backsides and serpentines; and at the same time you will build the physical and verbal cues that you will use as a handler to prepare your dog for the turns. The supporting video in each lesson will often be taken directly from the work I have done with my young border collie Nick. Nick – whose predominant thought always was “how fast can I go” struggled with these skills before I took him through this “Boot Camp” program. Read more about Nick’s story here.
The course is progressive. Each lesson will consist of a description of the skills we want the dog to learn, an exercise designed to teach the dog the skill and a supporting video. Each lesson builds on the previous lesson. The process can’t be rushed! To help avoid binge learning and give our dogs the time to build their physical skills and understanding of your cues, the lessons will be released weekly but the course length allows ample time to master each of the lessons. You won’t have to progress if you aren’t ready.
Dogs should be at least 1 year old and doing some sequencing before undertaking this full program, although some elements can be done safely with younger dogs. Contact me to discuss.
Equipment and space requirements:
- 2 wing jumps and an optional tunnel.
- An object to wrap like a large cone or a bucket.
- Working spots also require video camera, editing tool and a YouTube account.
- Not required but highly recommended: Susan Salo’s Jumping Grid Workbook – which can be purchased at Clean Run.
- 5-8 additional wingless jumps (or ladder jumps – see pictures here) for the Susan Salo grids.
- Space needed: a 50 ft x 40 ft space would be adequate. Many of the exercises can be done in a much smaller space.
Class outline:
- Lesson 1 – Understanding/recognizing extension vs collection
- Lesson 2 – The physicality of collection and handler physical/verbal cues
- Lesson 3 – One jump work – wraps and backside intro
- Lesson 4 – 1 and 2 jump work – figure 8 drill, serpentine intro
- Lesson 5 – 1 and 2 jump work – adding speed into the collection
- Lesson 6 – 2 jump work with more speed and mixing it up
Questions? Contact Anne Stocum via Facebook Messenger or through the contact form on this site
