# GSD Stride Length?



## wildo

Last night in class we setup a jump chute so that handlers could get a better view of the dog from the side (trainer would call the dog over the jump). We had setup a 5.5' stride length, but my trainer thought we should widen it out for Pimg. We bumped it out to about 6.5' and she did pretty good. As I was watching the video though, it seems like she is still collecting a bit. I bet she could easily clear a much longer length at full speed.

What is the typical stride length for your GSD?

(There was not a chance Pimg would "come" to the trainer. My dog is extremely handler (ME!) focused, and wouldn't care much about the trainer. As such, we took some video so i could watch later on. Not to mention yesterday was Pimg's five year birthday and I wanted some pics/video of her on that day.)






BTW- I just so happened to notice on the second run, middle jump, I twitched my shoulders and Pimg knocked the bar. Hmmm.... Handler training anyone?? haha!


----------



## MaggieRoseLee

Great job on the jump chute! 

I know when I took a Susan Salo jump seminar, for dogs like my Bretta we had a regular distance between the jumps at about 6 1/2' (to 7') between each jump. 

She also wants to prevent all the handler stuff affecting the jumping (like you noticed with your shoulder twitch) so she recommends using a target on the ground at the end of the line of jumps (with food on it) and the owner/handler standing beside the target and NOT moving. If our dogs won't stay without us, it's fine to just have anyone else in class hold the collar until we get to the far side/target and give the release word.

Even at 7' , that can be 'collected' for Bretta. If she's running top speed thru a jump grid she can 'bounce' easily with a 15' distance.

A neat exercise with 5 jumps in a row is to have distance increase from 6' to 8' to 10' to 12' .... Once your dog gets it they should just increase their push and bounce between all of them. Keep the bars low initially (16" even ) cause it's their takeoff/landing they need to figure out first, once they figure that out the height is easy.


----------



## wildo

Ah- good info, as usual MRL! My trainer _did_ suggest to me that I need to start using targets so I can better direct Pimg without having to be beside her. She is SOOOOO handler focused- she's probably going to be a slow agility dog, needing direction at every obstacle. But we're working on it... So it sounds like 6.5-7' was about right for this kind of practice. Excellent! The 6-8-10-12 exercise sounds really fun- can't wait until there's no snow on the ground (and as a winter person, I can't believe I just said that!)

Oh and the "that dog over there is going to be the death of me" comment was in reference to another dog, not mine. This other dog has practically no obedience training and is quite a handful.


----------



## TaraM1285

Great job! Thanks for sharing.


----------



## MaggieRoseLee

The target really helps, and we are NOT supposed to move initially cause we just want the dog to be able to start learning to look and judge the jump distance/height on their own without the distracting running/yelling/flailing human (me  ) in the mix. Only after the dogs really start to understand 'their' job with the jumps do we start making it harder and raising the bars as well as later adding handler motion. 

Neat to see the dogs start to look down a line of jumps and actually figuring out how to get over them all. 

If you get a chance to attend a Susan Salo Seminar it's really worth it. Also can purchase her DVD.


----------

