A New Scientific Study: Canine Jumping

[tag team]

A new scientific study just came out about dogs and agility-style jumping.  I thought this would be of particular interest to NADAC competitors because the article includes study results related to obstacle spacing (not surprising to me at all).    I copied the potion of the paper that is free and posted it on my blog.  For under $10, you can access the full article for 24 hourse, which I plan to do. 

See link below to access the abstract.

"https://artanddogblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/a-new-scientific-study-canine-jumping/"

Happy Jumping!

Dev Sperber

[Jeff Lyons]

Awesome.  Thanks so much for sharing.

[Sharon Nelson]

I will do everything I can to keep my mouth shut.  There is a part called "common sense and logic".  As a person from the horse jumping environment, it makes some great analogies.  Every time that I ever say anything about horse jumping, the dog community jumps up and says "dogs are not horses and are built differently".  It is nice to read a study that confirms that the dogs exhibit the same responses to jump heights and the distance between jumps as the horse studies have shown.  The study does says that even though dogs and horses are anatomically different, they show the same results on the jumping study.

They did a nice study on the neck angles, back angles and shoulder angles on a series of jumps set at different distances.

I do love the conclusions that the shorter distances between jumps should be tested only on very experienced and qualified canines to prevent injuries, as the more novice dogs exhibited jumping forms that could cause injuries to the dogs. (which is why 11 dogs had to be removed from the study). 

This study shows the same conclusions as the Lackland Air Force study did back in the 70's.   The higher the jump and the closer the jumps are the more force is applied.

It was from the Lackland study (for our military dogs) that NADAC was created with lower jumps that would be set at greater distances between jumps.

Enough said and I have argued this for more than 25 years.........  I will continue doing what we are doing and will continue to be happy!

Sharon

[Jeff Lyons]

Makes me happy too, Sharon!! 

[Marcy Matties]

I will do everything I can to keep my mouth shut.  There is a part called "common sense and logic".  As a person from the horse jumping environment, it makes some great analogies.  Every time that I ever say anything about horse jumping, the dog community jumps up and says "dogs are not horses and are built differently".  It is nice to read a study that confirms that the dogs exhibit the same responses to jump heights and the distance between jumps as the horse studies have shown.  The study does says that even though dogs and horses are anatomically different, they show the same results on the jumping study.

They did a nice study on the neck angles, back angles and shoulder angles on a series of jumps set at different distances.

I do love the conclusions that the shorter distances between jumps should be tested only on very experienced and qualified canines to prevent injuries, as the more novice dogs exhibited jumping forms that could cause injuries to the dogs. (which is why 11 dogs had to be removed from the study). 

This study shows the same conclusions as the Lackland Air Force study did back in the 70's.   The higher the jump and the closer the jumps are the more force is applied.

It was from the Lackland study (for our military dogs) that NADAC was created with lower jumps that would be set at greater distances between jumps.

Enough said and I have argued this for more than 25 years.........  I will continue doing what we are doing and will continue to be happy!

Sharon

I'd love to read the Lackland study.  Tried to Google it but came up empty.  Any ideas where I might find it - or better key words to use to search?

[Maureen deHaan]

"Like" Button Here! 

[tag team]

Sharon,  I hope you never decide to keep your mouth shut...or fingers locked... in this case.     I think we are all eager to hear your thoughts on this topic.. and all topics related to dogs and their people.  I know I am!!!

I have not read this study yet, but I hope studies like this one will eventually replace the non-scientific articles about jumping and jumping issues that have been published in Clean Run Magazine over the years, which are written by self-appointed jumping experts, yet based solely on the writer's opinion. IMO these articles had led way too many many good intentioned people down the path of rigid jump training programs with the goal of "fixing" their dogs jumping issues when the real issue is some dogs cannot comfortably jump the randomly designated jump heights in some organization or in the style that some self-appointed expert thinks ALL dogs should jump with... GRRRR.  Obviously this is a pet peeve of mine. 

Dev

[Donna Waugh]

I and mine will stay with NADAC. 

[Roger Coor]

  As a person that runs small dogs, there is another aspect of this that I do see.   Spacing of obstacles in any venue including NADAC has a regulating affect on the stride of dogs of a certain size and larger.  When these dogs of a certain size and larger run through a course, the spacing and jump heights dictate naturally a prettier more natural jump style.  As we look at smaller dogs, spacing of jumps have less of a regulating affect on the stride leading to the jump.  Consequently more small dogs I find tend to have uglier jumping styles that may at some point cause some injury.  The upshot is I think people who have small dogs and their instructors should be extra vigilant to teach smaller dogs a pretty and safe jumping style because the jump spacing may not be regulating it.