I've posted before about the fact that Morag, while running agility at
semi-extension, occasionally chooses to take off WAY back from the jump,
rather than collect and put in one more stride.
In doing so, she defies the "conventional wisdom" that when jumping, the
takeoff and landing are equidistant from the jump, as she powers into a
takeoff 10 feet or more from the jump, then drops back to the ground only a
foot or two in front of it.

She is, incidentally, completely in control of what she's doing; and AFAICT
she gets away with it due to her light weight and extra-good spinal
flexibility, which is most evident in the next-to last picture. (Spinal flex
is also evident in the chase-game photos I posted the link to, where she can
be seen changing direction at high speed, with her front end going one way
and her hind another G).

At any rate, the videographer who taped us in November happened to be in
just the right spot to catch one of her power-jumps, and I've vid-captured
the sequence. (the video can be seen on YouTube). I'm never really aware she
does it when we're running - it happens too fast - but when you see it in
slow- or stop-motion, it definitely has WOW factor.

Best way to look at these, btw, is to click "view as slide show".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimawr/...7603457511570/

"sionnach" wrote in message
...


I've posted before about the fact that Morag, while running agility at
semi-extension, occasionally chooses to take off WAY back from the jump,
rather than collect and put in one more stride.
In doing so, she defies the "conventional wisdom" that when jumping,
the
takeoff and landing are equidistant from the jump, as she powers into a
takeoff 10 feet or more from the jump, then drops back to the ground only
a
foot or two in front of it.

She is, incidentally, completely in control of what she's doing; and
AFAICT
she gets away with it due to her light weight and extra-good spinal
flexibility, which is most evident in the next-to last picture. (Spinal
flex
is also evident in the chase-game photos I posted the link to, where she
can
be seen changing direction at high speed, with her front end going one way
and her hind another G).

At any rate, the videographer who taped us in November happened to be in
just the right spot to catch one of her power-jumps, and I've vid-captured
the sequence. (the video can be seen on YouTube). I'm never really aware
she
does it when we're running - it happens too fast - but when you see it in
slow- or stop-motion, it definitely has WOW factor.

Best way to look at these, btw, is to click "view as slide show".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimawr/...7603457511570/


==============
Wow is right, that dog can fly. Why does the dog (is his name Morag?) start
the jump so far ahead, and yes this dog definitely looks like he is in full
control and confident. The dog is so far ahead of you, he looks like he
could do the run by himself. How does he receive commands from you when he
is so far ahead?
Try looking at that sequence in reverse without using the side show; it is
even clearer how far Morag can leap.

"sionnach" wrote in news:5sgoviF18l6fjU1
@mid.individual.net:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimawr/...7603457511570/

Holy crap! If you have broadband, you can click through them, like a
flip book. That's some *serious* reach! Even though I knew she was
going to make it over the jump, there's a part of my brain that was
thinking:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/12/13/about-to-fail/

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

"sionnach" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

She is, incidentally, completely in control of what she's
doing; and AFAICT she gets away with it due to her light
weight and extra-good spinal flexibility, which is most
evident in the next-to last picture.

Sorry, on that surface I can't see any dog being completely in
control.

Morag jumps a lot like Friday - Friday's 22" jump stride is
150" and 2/3 is before the jump. I thought about fixing it, but
he rarely knocks bars, so I'm not concerned.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

"sionnach" wrote in message
...


I've posted before about the fact that Morag, while running agility at
semi-extension, occasionally chooses to take off WAY back from the jump,
rather than collect and put in one more stride.
In doing so, she defies the "conventional wisdom" that when jumping,
the
takeoff and landing are equidistant from the jump, as she powers into a
takeoff 10 feet or more from the jump, then drops back to the ground only
a
foot or two in front of it.

She is, incidentally, completely in control of what she's doing; and
AFAICT
she gets away with it due to her light weight and extra-good spinal
flexibility, which is most evident in the next-to last picture. (Spinal
flex
is also evident in the chase-game photos I posted the link to, where she
can
be seen changing direction at high speed, with her front end going one way
and her hind another G).

At any rate, the videographer who taped us in November happened to be in
just the right spot to catch one of her power-jumps, and I've vid-captured
the sequence. (the video can be seen on YouTube). I'm never really aware
she
does it when we're running - it happens too fast - but when you see it in
slow- or stop-motion, it definitely has WOW factor.

Best way to look at these, btw, is to click "view as slide show".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimawr/...7603457511570/



Go kangaroo dog!

Matt said:

Sorry, on that surface I can't see any dog being completely in
control.

"That surface"?? It's grass, and grass which was specifically put down and
is maintained for agility. Surface is sort of irrelevant anyhow, since I was
referring to a, her choice of takeoff point, and b, her control of her body
mid-air. G


Morag jumps a lot like Friday -

To be clear, she doesn't always jump like that; usually only on one or two
jumps per course. When she does do it, she's substituting air time for a
stride she would normally take. IOW, if she would normally take 2 strides,
she takes 1, if it would normally be 3, she takes 2.
If you watch the video of it, you can see that she's running collected for
most of the course, but kicks her speed up a notch just after the
serpentine - partially because she can see the straightline end, partially
because I gave her a "Go!" which means "run fast and keep straight on 'til
morning". G


Friday's 22" jump stride is
150" and 2/3 is before the jump. I thought about fixing it, but
he rarely knocks bars, so I'm not concerned.

Yup. That's my position - she knows what she's doing.

"sionnach" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Sorry, on that surface I can't see any dog being
completely in control.

"That surface"?? It's grass, and grass which was
specifically put down and
is maintained for agility.

Well, the pictures don't show it off very well, then. To me, it
looks hard packed and fairly patchy with lots of brown slippery
grass.

Surface is sort of irrelevant
anyhow, since I was referring to a, her choice of takeoff
point, and b, her control of her body mid-air. G

My comments were based upon the surface not being a great one.
In my experience, when a dog is on a poor surface they
compensate in many interesting ways. Obviously you're in a
better position than me to evaluate the grass.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.