Vikka on jump bumps

Yesterday, I posted video of Fizz doing her first set of grid work, or for that matter, any formal jumping.   Fizz stands around 21.5" (roughly....based on how she compares to Vikka in height.  Vikka is measured at 22 3/8" on her agility card).   I've had questions about the jump bumps, and "aren't they too low to really see true jumping style."    Simple answer:  no.

Here is footage of Vikka, also made yesterday.  Vik will be 10 in August.   She competed in agility for several years, earned her Open titles and ran in Excellent, though we never finished our Excellent titles.  She was a 24" jumper.  Vik never went through Susan Salo's jumping program, nor did we do much work with Linda Mecklenberg's jumping rounded over one jump (at full height).   She did not have issues dropping bars, and at almost 10, is not showing ill effects of her days in agility.   HOWEVER, you can see in this video footage that her style is inefficient.   Interestingly, Vikka has excellent overall construction.  She has near perfect balance of front/rear angles (per Chris Zink, DVM, PhD), her turn of stifle is excellent, her angulation front and back is not only matched, but excellent.   She moves effortlessly, and almost always comes to a perfect show stack when she stands.    I personally think her construction is better than Fizz's (and yes, Fizz is still in puppy stages, but overall, Vik is better built).   And yet, Fizz has a far better jumping style, naturally, than Vik does.

In this video, you can see how incredibly high her head is carried in the first pass, almost painfully so.  The landings are ballistic and very unkind to the body.   In the 2nd and 3rd passes, she starts to lower her head, and round her jumps more.   This CAN be learned, but takes a lot of time/repetition to overcome what is naturally in the dog's wiring.    Height of the jump bumps is NOT the issue, Vikka was an excellent jumper at 24", with many blue ribbons to show for her work, she was ranked in the Rottweiler Top 10 in agility when she trialed.   What you see here is simply inherent jumping style.   And what was seen in Fizz's video yesterday was her inherent (LOVELY!) jumping style.  :)