Hi, I am new here and was looking for someone who has expereince with northern breed type dogs in agility. I have a malamute mix, akita, chow, who I have been doing agility with for almost 3 years now. We are just starting to compete. He is a great dog and has been a challange, low drive, low motivation attention. He has become a food driven machine who enjoys working with me now and we have a lot of fun.
My question is regarding jumping styles. I have had someone comment on his style a couple of times and I wonder. He is in specials 22" (he is only 50 lbs and just over the height requirement for being 26" jump height). People have said that jumping looks hard for him and that he doesn't 'extend' over jumps at all but keeps his feet tucked. At 26" he was refusing jumps and was huffing on the landing, but since moving to 22" has been much happier.
The latest comment came during a seminar where the instructor felt that my dogs refusal of a jump a couple of times in a row may be due to the jump being too high, the same scenario with 16" jumps showed no refusals. Is there any way to learn more about jumping styles and how can I go about determining whether his refusals is because it is uncomfortable to jump the height or wether it is because of my failure to teach him to jump properly or simply he wasn't into the challenge. My dog has never knocked a bar down, even in practice, his jumping is clean but tends to be wide. We work often on pin wheels and starting to do more wrapping and post style exercises.
Thank you for you time.
Cheers, Kara
If I can offer anymore usefull information let me know what would help. Here's a couple poor pictures of him jumping at 26".
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http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/pittiepride/sojhinjumping2.jpg
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/pittiepride/sojhinjumping.jpg
Re: Northern breeds in agility?
I don't see any real problems in the pictures... he has a nice little arc to his jumping. Is he square, or more long in the back?
Is he refusing jumps on a regular basis, or was this only at the seminar?Â
If it was only at the seminar, was it because he was becoming tired, or unmotivated? Sometimes with a dog that won't work until they drop, you need to keep your excercises short and sweet, with lots of rewards, and stop training on a positive note before the dog becomes tired.Â
His pictures show him looking nice and trim, so I tend to doubt it's his weight that's causing the "omph" on impact.Â
Perhaps if he's refusing jumps on a regular basis he might have a poor structure, or he needs more conditioning work away from agility to build up more muscles to get over those big jumps.Â
Do the people who commented on his jumping run different breeds? The woman who runs a malamute in our area certainly does not have a dog who extends over jumps... her dog is large, and doesn't jump like a 35lb BC.... of course! Her dog is wonderful, it just got a MACH3!!!!!!!!
Katie
Re: Northern breeds in agility?
Thank you for your comments. He will refuse jumps if he can get around it. We are working on our lead outs because he will often deak the first jump even right in front of him, I am not sure as to why but we are working on that. He hardly ever refuses jumps in a course setting but he is a challenge in training because his attention span is short and any more than 3 times and he's not in the game anymore.
He's quite small, 55lbs, his structure is not supurbe (sp?) he has one back foot that he drags forward when he's walking so I suspect his hips are a bit off center but have never noticed any sign of uncomfortableness from him. We do lots of sit ups, extending up from a sit to strengthen his hind end.
We are one of 3 northern mixed breed teams in our area and the other dogs appear to have a more athletic shepardy type build than mine.
Thanks again for your comments. Any tips on exercises for that back end?
KaraÂ
Re: Northern breeds in agility?
I ran my Samoyed for a while. She and other Northern breeds that I know of do go around jumps when they can. In these cases - they do it when the obstacles are not strongly supported by handler.
They do seem to cheat the handler a bit more than working breeds. My friend who has a very high drive Samoyed has similar issues. The dog LOVES agility - but if it could get around a jump - it will. This is common of the northern dogs I know.
Northern dogs are not breed to be agile - but for strength and to work more independently.
They can be very good at agility but do need more handler support.
You should, however, make sure there isn't anything physical going on too. But, if you dog is healthy and not sore.
Renee
Re: Northern breeds in agility?
Thanks for all your comments, and Renee i think you are very right in your observations!
 After a couple of trials we have gained Q's in Starters Jumpers, Gamblers and Snooker. We need to get a Q in Starters Team Relay to get our Starters Game Dog Title and we need 3 titling runs to become an Advanced dog.
 I think the titling rounds are hard for us because they are more mentally challenging for him, jumpers and snooker rounds I am able to make nice smooth lines all the time that keep him motivated and moving.
Thanks, KaraÂ
Re: Northern breeds in agility?
Hi, he does look like he is in good shape.
I wonder if he is refusing jumps at a high height because it is painful to land. I can't tell from the photos, but maybe he has straight shoulders and his shoulders then jar as he lands. It's hard to tell without seeing him.
I great resource for "backend" information might be Chris Zink's book: Peak Performance: Coaching the Canine Athlete, 2nd Edition. Dr. Zink's book contains a TON of stuff about canine structure!
Good Luck!
~Jess