DOG TRAINING Utility Class Directed Jumping

This exercise is conducted as follows: Take a position, with your dog at your heel, and the bar and high jump about 20 feet to your front. The judge will order you to “Send your dog” and you will command your dog, "Go". The dog should trot out briskly to a point about 20 feet beyond the jump at which time you should command, “Sit”. Your dog should turn and face you in the sitting position. At this time the judge will tell you which jump you should send your dog over. You should then give him the command “Hup” and signal him toward the jump. The dog should clear the jump without touching. When the dog is in midair you may turn to face him as he returns. Then, upon order from the judge, finish your dog by sending him to your heel. You may then praise your dog. Repeat this exercise by sending him over the other jump.

The dogs and handlers will line up, in the order of judging, with the dogs in the sitting position. No more than 15 dogs should be examined at one time. The judge will give the order “Stand your dog”, whereupon you should place your dog in a standing position. Place the feet squarely and do not stretch him too much because he should not move his feet during the time of examination of all dogs (which shall be at least three minutes). After it appears that all handlers have their dogs standing satisfactorily, the judge will order “Leave your dog”. You will then command and or signal to “Stay” and leave your dog, standing about 25 feet in front. The judge will then examine each dog by passing his hand over the head, shoulders and back. He will then order “Return to your dog”. Return to your dog and stand beside him until the judge says, “Exercise finished” Ask a friend to examine your dog in practice so that he will not be shy or aggressive toward strangers. You should practice this in the presence of dogs standing on both sides

You should first teach your dog to go to the designated point beyond the jumps. Accomplish this by starting with your dog on leash in the heel position. Command your dog “Go” and run, giving the arm signal, to the designated point.

Upon reaching the point, halt, bring him toward you and say, “Sit”. Then give praise. You may practice this part of the exercise by going back and forth from one side of the jumps to the other. Remove the leash as soon as he reacts favorably. This is usually rather difficult to teach.

You may need to repeat this training procedure many times to get your dog to react as strongly to the command and signal as this one.

The second part of the exercise is to send your dog over the jumps. After sending your dog to a point about 20 feet beyond the jumps you should then take a position between the jumps, facing your dog. Point to one of the jumps and say “Hup”. After the dog makes the jump, call him in to your front, praise a few moments and then send him to heel. As your dog learns to jump upon command and signal, begin moving away from him toward the point from which you sent him. The picture will make this point clear.

Stand beside the jump, when training. Your dog should not touch the bar when jumping. Your dog will likely do this well if he enjoyed the jumping part of the Open class.

After the dog makes the jump, call him in to your front.

Then send him to heel to complete the exercise.

Stand your dog squarely so that he may stand comfortably and not move his feet while the judge is examining the other dogs in the group.

A rigid training schedule is not recommended. Some dogs will advance faster than others. It is important that each new exercise be learned reasonably well before starting on the next step so that both the dog and handler do not get bogged down in too many problems. Always begin the training period with heeling on leash, some sits and downs and recalls, just to remind your dog that it is training time again. Continue with heel off leash and then go into the most recent exercise taught.

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