Friday, April 23, 2010

Tire and Broad Jump

I covered the regular jumps last time, and here are the last two kinds of jumps as promised :)

The tire jump is just what it sounds like - a hoop that resembles a tire, and the dog has to jump through.

The height at which the tire hangs depends on how tall the dog is, just like regular jumps. Unlike the regular jumps though, it's nearly impossible to knock this obstacle down, but the challenge here is for the dog to jump through the tire, and not just through the frame. Some large breeds also have trouble with the tire due to it's constrained size - the bigger the dog, the tighter the hoop feels for them.
This is a very common first obstacle on the course since it's very easy to put the electronic timer around the tire (you can see it on the picture above). A common mistake people make in this case is placing the dog too close to the tire, making it harder to jump through.

Last, but not least, we have the broad jump.

Unlike all other jumps, the broad jump focuses on the jump length rather than height. Here, the height of the dog determines the length of the jump, and it is twice longer than a regular jump would be high (so a dog that jumps 12" will have a 24" long broad jump, dogs jumping 22" have a 44" long broad jump). The jump is slightly raised towards the end, and the dog still has to catch some air to clear it. Stepping on the jump would earn a failure to perform, and is a very common problem with smaller dogs.

Stay tuned for other obstacles :)

3 comments:

  1. Just ran across your blog and would like to thank you for the very informative post. Great tips! I'm looking forward to reading more. By the way, I also love the pictures that accompany the post.

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  2. Welcome, and thank you, glad you are enjoying it :)

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