Stuck in quarantine with no idea how to fill your days? This is an ideal time to get out there and teach your dog some cool agility tricks. Not only will you and your dog enjoy some fresh air and bonding, using the tire jump, weaves, teeters and other agility equipment provides an excellent source of exercise for your furry friend.
If you are just getting started with agility, jumps can be a great first apparatus to teach, although the tire jump can be a trickier than a basic single jump. But don’t let that dissuade you from giving it a try. Dogs love to jump, and we have a few tips that can help you and your dog master the dog agility tire jump.
1. Work On Those Regular Jumps First
Grab a basic single jump and teach this skill before you add the tire jump. You can begin by just laying a jump pole on the ground and teaching your dog to walk over it and then jump over it on the ground.
Once your dog gets the idea with the pole on the ground, add some height and practice jumping over the pole until you reach competition height. Competition height will vary by organization and by the size and age of your dog, so be sure that you aren’t raising that bar too high.
After your dog has mastered a basic single jump, you could begin teaching a tire jump or even move on to a double or triple jump before working on the tire jump. With these more difficult jumps, your dog will gain a great deal of jump experience and when proficient, likely will learn the tire jump very quickly.
2. Introduce The Tire Jump Slowly
When you add any new piece of dog agility equipment to your repertoire, it’s always a good idea to let your dog sniff around it a bit and kind of get used to the idea of this new item. The hold the tire on the ground and encourage your pet to go through the hoop. Once they feel comfortable walking through the hoop, you can place it on its stand and start training your pooch to jump through the hoop, although you will want to begin with the height set to the lowest level.
3. Sit & Stay, Then Jump
We recommend starting by placing your dog two or three feet in front of the tire and giving a sit and stay command. Then you stand on the other side of the jump and give a “jump” command and encourage your dog to jump through the hoop and come toward you.
If you need to, use a treat to coax your pooch through the tire jump the first few times, and be sure you have set the tire to its lowest level. Dogs have a tendency to go under the tire if it is placed too high, and, in the beginning, it is safer to have them jump at this lower height.
4. Add Height
Once your dog has mastered the tire jump at the lowest setting, you can increase the height. Make sure that you are teaching your pooch to jump straight through the tire and not off to the side or at an angle and this can cause them to become snagged in the tire and can cause injuries.
We also don’t recommend lowering the height after they have mastered the competition height. Once a dog is used to jumping at full height, they will have memorized that this is the way we do this jump and if, all of a sudden, the height is lower, this could put your dog at risk for injuries.
As with any piece of dog agility equipment, the dog agility tire jump takes some practice and some patience on the part of the handler. Dogs also learn much more quickly when their handlers are enthusiastic, so heap on the praise whenever your dog completes a jump correctly.
When a mistake is made, don’t scold. Simply direct your dog back to the sit and stay position and try again. Once our dog has mastered the tire jump at just a few feet away, increase the distance and increase your distance from your dog, mimicking the distance you would find on a competition course.
At Carlson Agility, we have both an AKC (24-inch) and a USDAA (20-inch) tire jump. These jumps include multiple height setting options, ranging from 8 inches up to 26 inches. To accommodate smaller dogs, we also sell a mini tire jump with a 20-inch diameter tire. These jumps are lower to the ground and safer for your smaller pooch. The mini jump adjusts to heights of 8, 10 and 12 inches.
With either the larger tire jumps or mini jumps, you can customize the color and tape style. While your furry friend might not be able to enjoy the bold colors, they are a fun feature for the humans and we can customize colors at no extra charge. We use strong industrial nylon tape for all of our tire jumps, which are far more durable and weather-resistant than duct tape.
In addition to the dog agility tire jump, we sell just about every piece of dog agility equipment you might need. This includes all types of jumps, weaves, teeters, a-frames, pause tables, tunnels and more. Every piece is handcrafted using the best quality materials and built exactly like the equipment you will see on most competition courses. If you have any questions about our equipment, don’t hesitate to send us an email at any time.
