Dylan's Jumping Part 2
I take back what I said.
It is pretty clear to me that as a rule, Dylan jumps with his hind legs tucked under him. I’m not sure this has gotten any worse since he’s started competing, and I’m not sure it’s a physical limitation or injury.
I spent a lot of time after posting yesterday hunting out old videos of Dylan, from when he was just learning. I wanted to cry. His jumping is beautiful; long, clean, fully extended with no tucking. He flexes and shapes his turns.
Alright, I’ll admit that it’s not perfect on every single jump. He shows a distinct predisposition for tucking his jumps. But that doesn’t necessarily explain why he jumps the way he does now either; is it the remnant of a physical injury (or a current one)? Is it just his predisposition became his ‘style’ because he wasn’t taught any other way?
I guess this is where the experience comes in. Kim is a brilliant jumping dog, but has hit and miss contacts and slow weaves. I worked very hard to make sure Dylan has solid, fast contacts (ok, the fast is still a work in progress!) and solid, fast weaves. He does! But I didn’t even think about his jumping technique, I just assumed that as he got accustomed to the height and movement, he would develop a suitable jumping technique, as Kim did. In fact, assume is too strong a word; it never crossed my mind at all.
I also made assumptions based on Dylan being a Border Collie/WSD and what everyone had told me about Border Collies/WSDs. I don’t know if everyone was lying, or whether Dyl is just an unusual collie, but he is not a risky, hard-headed dog who needs a strong handler. He is soft, cautious and needs a sympathetic handler, but I didn’t realise that at first. I guess that’s partially based on my expectations of Border Collies, as well.
If only it would just stop snowing and let me go and do some training!
2 Comments
Vicki
Maybe a visit to a chiro just to rule out anything that could cause extending to be uncomfortable would be the best first step. At least if you know its nothing physical you know you can work on his style.
Do you think its maybe a confidence issue? He has had a couple of confidence setbacks recently (tailwaggers for one which was on a straight) so knowing Dyls personality he is perhaps taking the easy cautious route when he has the option to (and possibly worrying about the next jump?). Certainly on the pin wheel jumps on your previous post tucking up would be a lot harder to do tucked up, so hes *having* to extend to get round.
Do you have a video of that run at tailwaggers? Would be interesting to know if he tucked up or extended for the jump he crashed into. Maybe try doing some gridwork over medium jumps where he has to bounce and see what jumping style he uses.
Neither D or Inca are risky hard-headed dogs, although D is far more gung-ho and not so worried about getting things wrong. Inca on the other hand would run a mile if you used a too harsh tone with her in the ring, and her confidence would crumble if she thought she had got it wrong. I made similar assumptions as you did with Dyl with her but with her weaves. I just assumed as her confidence and experience grew her weaves would get better as they did with Pip…well..we’re still working on them (although they’ve been put on the backburner at the moment). But yes, shes not really a collie at all 😉
Leanne
I’m booking him in for chiro as soon as reasonably possibly, because I just have a feeling that something is off in his left hip – no lameness or signs of pain, just a niggle I’ve got. 😉 He did land on his right shoulder when he crashed though, so it’s very likely to have thrown him out.
I’ve just gone and had another look at Tailwaggers crash. It’s really difficult to tell what he was doing on that final straight – I’m between the camera and Dyl so I’m blocking a clear shot. I can see that he just doesn’t get the height at all for the second part of the bounce, I don’t know if he just misjudged it very badly, or bailed after taking off. Either way, I know it knocked his confidence, but I also know he was doing this prior.
Gridwork is definitely on the menu, just need to figure out logistics.
Dylan and Inca are clearly cut from the same cloth, they’re both very happy to stay in their comfort zones!