Jump Through My Arms               

Moses (Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever)

Jump Through My Arms -Video 581kb

 

Uses
Good party trick.

Equipment Needed
Dog that is 12 months or over and is in a good physical condition to jump and able to fit through your arms, treats, clicker, some space to move.

Step 1.
Off lead. Go down in a crouch with arms held in a circle on the ground. Encourage dog to the other side of your arms.  Sometimes it might help if you have someone on the other side of your arms luring the dog through.  I also started off with my dog walking through a hoola hoop on the ground and wrapped my arms around the hoola hoop.  I also did this in a hallway so the dog had no choice but to go through the hoola hoop.

Step 2.
Click/reward 5 to 10 times for walking through arms at ground level in the same direction.

Step 3.
Raise arms in circle an inch off the ground. Encourage dog to go through arms at this new height. Click/reward another 5 to 10 times at this new height in the same direction.

Step 4.
Repeat step 4 at slowly incremented heights off the ground. Taking it slowly and going back to lower heights if your dog is having trouble. Stay at each height for at least 5 click/rewards. Ensure dog has enough room to wind up to the jump and enough room after jump on the other side.

Step 5.
When dog is reliably jumping through arms when you hold them in a circle beside you at your desired height (taking into consideration your dogs' capabilities), add cue. Add cue at the time your dog is jumping and click, then reward on the other side of your arms. Say this at least 5 or 10 times. Then ask for "cue" before the behaviour. I use "through"

ADVANCED
Introduce dog to the other direction - will most likely need to make it easier by reducing height for a while before getting up to the optimum height. Introduce dog to arms held in circle on the other side of you - again will most likely need to make it easier by reducing height for a while before getting up to optimum height.

TROUBLE SHOOTING
Why only one direction to start? You want to build the behaviour using what your dog prefers and is most likely to succeed with, therefore let the dog decide what it prefers to do, that is, either going through your arms from behind you (through to your front) or from in front (through to your behind).

 

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