I'm so miffed!
A couple of weeks ago we were having such a fab training session and yet this weeks and last weeks training was hopeless.
I think (and this is totally my own opinion so could probs be wrong) that the reason we are having such trouble with the left turns is Tia still is not weight bearing properly on her left back leg. Therefore when she is taking off for a jump (particularly on a left turn) she is not pushing off properly on this leg, and this unbalances her, causing her to do the horrible action that she was doing back in April........ if anyone has any ideas it would be sooo appreciated!
9 comments:
No ideas - but some sympathy...Pop has been tucking like this for so long everyone thought it was normal for her til this year. There's stuff about it on my blog but it has been muscles around an area of her spine damaged a long time ago. Now she's actually fine (I'm told) but the habit of tucking and measuring is a hard one to change and its somthing I won;t be able to do now. H
I dont really know what to advise. But if she is not baring weight down properly, is she in pain? Would a good week or two or rest help? or is this just a learned habit?
Thx Helen and Lora.
Lora - the specialist is sure Tia isn't in pain, we think, like Helens Pop, it is learned behaviour, that so many years of being in pain have caused. It took a good 3/4 months of physio/accupuncture etc to 'fix' her, but as shes had probably 5yrs of this its like an automatic reaction.
Helen - I know you've had to accept it with Pops and sometimes she does it more than others... I guess maybe I've been a little too hopeful that we'd be able to train her out of the habit if she realised it wasn't causing her pain. It just drives me nuts as it looks so uncomfortable for her to do and I just want to say to her "look you wally, it doesn't hurt any more!!!"
C x
Her right turns look much improved! And her left isn't always bad, when she gets the takeoff point right she's stretching nicely.
I'm not sure what direction she's coming from on the "good action" clip but her takeoff point is nice, she doesn't start to drop on her arc until she's cleared/clearing the jump. On the bad action her takeoff point is back by half a stride and she's already dropping as she's clearing the jump, which is when she tucks up.
Maybe it's a panic reflex? If she misses her TOP, she's trying to not hit the pole and in the moment of stress she's reverting to bad habits. I know Tia can be a bit of a worrier with her Obedience, could it be something like that?
I have no idea, but it's the only thing different I could see in the vid!
It does look like a take off point issue. Ok I am not much good at the jumping analysis thing but it looks like her jumping action is the same no matter where she takes off from.
So on the bad action clip, if she had taken off closer to the jump she would have been extending over the pole but cos she took off early, by the time she got to the pole she had done the extention and was then on the "tuck" phase as she went over the pole.
Thanks Lea and Mand - I have never actually thought about take off points, just assumed it was something dogs taught themselves! I mean, cant be that hard to jump the things infront of you! Woops. I'm on the hunt for a Susan Salo jumping dvd now :) xx
just a suggestion. What about a placing pole (sorry horsey lang )to a spread or a small spread on a corner with a placing pole .
Jenni xx
Im not really very good with jumping styles but i was going to suggest something similar to Jenni as i have seen it work well for horses!
Could you also go back to doing more grid work with her?
I HAVE found that if I put medium jumps up at distances that Pop CAN bounce stride (cos she can if they are medium) and put a full height pole after them five yrds off the last medium pole then she extends over the full height pole easily - it is as if the memory of the bouncing where she has had to extend over the medium poles stays with her as she approaches the full height one and she realises she can fully extend..it sort of frees her up ...(hope that makes sense!) It is just grid work I guess and believe me I have done a fair bit to convince her (though I reckon you have gone more extra miles on it than I have)H
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