Front Cross Jump Wrap Drill
01 Mar 2005
These are some drills that I created based on part of a Dana Pike advanced class course. These drills target a number of more advanced handling issues:
- Front crossing with the obstacle between the dog and the handler.
- Not driving towards the jumps and pushing the dog wide over the jump.
- Pre-cueing the Front Cross to wrap the dog around the jump standard.
- Handler staying on the HandlerLine Using the Handler Line - Front/Rear/Blind Cross LineHandler Line - Front/Rear/Blind Cross Line between the jumps to insure a tight line between the obstacles.
The basic layout is shown below with numbering for working in both directions:
Here’s another variation that is a little more difficult from jump 3 to jump 4 in each direction.
The desired handling for these sequences is to have the handler remain between the two rows of jumps and move horizontally across the course. The handler is performing Front Crosses Learning the Front Cross - VideoFront Cross at each jump with the dog on the far side of each jump from the handler. I try to show this in the diagram below. By changing the orientation of the jumps the handling changes slightly. You can also adjust the distance separating jumps to make the handling more or less difficult.
The “trick” in handling this is not to step any further to the next jump than your dog needs to understand that they are to take the jump. By not rushing at the jump you are letting the dog know that you aren’t expecting them to sail over the jump. They just need to clear it.
If you have worked on training Lateral Lead Outs you can pre-cue the upcoming Front Cross by starting the rotation before the dog has committed to the jump and show them the new Lead Arm even before the jump. Once your dog understands this handling they should turn tightly around the stantion. I found when working on this if I “opened up” too much when pre-cueing the Front Cross I would actually stop Milo because my whole body was turned directly towards him (so my shoulders, hips, and feet were facing him as he approached the jump). So it is important to not over do the pre-cue if your dog doesn’t understand what is being asked of him.
Enjoy!
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