Jump Chutes

Learned a new term this week - Jump Chutes!  Seems everybody knows about these except me.  Found a website that describes it, and ordered the book:  Suzanne Clothier's "The Clothier Natural Jumping Method" - $13.95 includes shipping.

http://agilitynerd.com/blog/agility/publications/NaturalJumping.html

This method supposedly teaches your dog to perfect their jumping ability by
setting up a series of bar jumps, set at specific distances to match your dog's stride, strengthening their hind quarters, teaching them extension and collection, and guaging distances, in a systematic way.

I've been using jump chutes all this while to teach "go outs" and never knew it! When the book comes in I suppose I'll be reporting on my training sessions.

Purusing the above website further, I discovered that the agilitynerd (Steven Schwarz) has been blogging for 5 years and is the oldest dog agility blog in existence.  Lots of useful links.  Very personal.  Very generous.  He, like me, includes his experiments and philosophical observations, and a rant now and then.  He has also developed some on-line programs people can use to generate various Box exercises, build courses, etc.  Also a store.  He has a huge following.

Gotta go get my 6 month supply of Advantage today.  Maxie is scratching and there are little tufts of white hair everywhere.  If I don't do it soon, I'll have a bald Papillon.  I checked prices online at PetMeds and others, but Greco's beats their prices by 10%, and no shipping. Sweet!

Meanwhile, upwards and onward!