Training A Pushback

Hello everyone!

In this week’s video, you will see how I taught my dogs how to perform a pushback when taking a jump.  Basically, a pushback is when you send your dog to the back side of the jump and they must tightly jump and come back around.  Teaching the pushback will prepare you for more challenging handling movements including wraps, reverse wraps, German turns, “scoops”,  etc.  The backside is mainly seen in most international competitions and in the new Premier class in AKC.  Although you may not see a pushback in even a Masters AKC course, they can still be very useful to teach and very helpful in the future.  And, all in all, you never know where agility may take you.

To begin training the pushback, you will only use one of the jump wings in order to break down every step of the action.  Begin by sending your dog around the jump using the proper hands (if your dog is on your left, send him behind the jump with your left hand, and vice versa).  You may have to lead your dog around the jump with a treat or a toy to encourage this action.  When your dog understands the action of running around the backside, start adding distance (see in the video above) and eventually a cue word.  (I say “huphuphuphuphup” when I send the dog around, but you can say something like”pushpushpushpush” if you prefer)  For the cue word, it works best if you say something repetitively that way the dog can differentiate this cue from the normal “over” or “jump” cue.

Once your dog fully understands the step above, you can begin step two.  In this step, you will still only use one jump wing, but you will add a bar and let one side touch the ground (see in video above).  Continue all the same steps and keep the bar extremely low (at least ½ the height of their normal jump height).  Keep repeating this step until your dog has mastery of this concept.  Also remember that it may take several days or a few weeks for your dog to move on to the next step.  Training takes time and if you rush through it before your dog is ready, it can set you back even farther.

For step three, we will finally set up the jump completely and have the bar starting either on the ground or at a very low height.  The point of all this training so far is to get the dog used to turing tightly around the back of the jump.  Now you can repeat the same routine as above and add in other obstacles (still keeping the jump height low).  Training a consistently good pushback takes time, so be patient and don’t rush the dog and make them jump too high if they are simply not ready yet.  Doing that can cause distress and confusion to the dog and possibly even joint injuries.

Hopefully the video above will give you a good demonstration on how to teach this pushback and remember to always make it a game for your dog and keep them having fun.  With just a 10 or so minutes of training a day, you will have a beautifully trained pushback in no time!

Happy training!

Hayley