Wild Beast-My dog Harry is a leaper!
Since the day we brought him home at six and half months Harry has leapt. He jumped from the yard up one step to the patio like he was leaping the Grand Canyon that first day. With his front paws tucked he actually looks like he is floating when he is leaping. He doesn't just get up on the couch - he leaps on and he leaps off. I have been wanting to do agility with him - particularly since I had Mopsy who showed agility inclinations but had a bad hip. When we picked up Harry we found out that his grandmother (paternal bloodline is from Australia) was an agility dog. Yesterday was an eyeopener. Not only did I read a post where Emily, Stacy (Willowsprite) and Makayla do not let their Sheepies take stairs - whereas Harry goes up the eleven stairs from the basement in 2 1/4 leaps. But when I came home from work he was a wild beast. He will sit and wait while you are doing something(like checking mail) but then when I walk down the hall he runs and then when he sees I am going into my bedroom he leaps onto my bed - the top of the mattress is 31" from the floor! We got a new mattress eight months ago and even I climb up onto it and he usually puts his front paws up on it and then I lift up the backend. Then I went downstairs where the rest of the family was holed up and as I was walking towards the steps to go back up he goes flying into the back room and takes a flying leap onto his grooming table (30" from the floor) and comes to a dead standstill on the top.  I wasn't even dressed to groom him and he is standing there like No Big Deal. Tim and I were in a state of shock. After that I noticed when we went on our walk and took the bridge over the creek that he leapt over the three steps onto the bridge and I realized he does this all the time.
I don't want to cause stress on his hips but we do spend time in both parts of the house and that means stairs. I also waited until he turned one to start looking for agility classes. Harry is just a leaper. It is almost like when your dog gets fixed and they tell you to keep them quiet and you are thinking "yeah right" So I am of the frame of mind that he is happiest when leaping and i hate to break his spirit. But I would love input and I guess I am just curious if anyone else has an Air Jordan out there. |
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| HAHAHA I couldn't help but laugh imagining what he does!!
(I'd love to see him in those air jordan made for dogs..) I find it quite funny when my dog jumps up 5 stairs at a time... But he's not usually a jumper or leaper... Maybe once you start doing agility he'll be less of a jordan at home! |
 That is very cute indeed!
Callie is a bit of a leaper too, and in many of the same scenarios... Our bed is pretty high -- it takes some effort for me to crawl up into it. But if I give Callie the okay, she can just jump right up there from a standing position on the floor. It's no big deal to her. It still cracks me up. The stairs, too - she is up and down them all the time in about three steps. I must have read the same posts as you yesterday, because that caught my attention as well. I hadn't heard anything before about not letting your dogs on the stairs to protect their hips. It makes sense, I guess... but can it really make the difference in the long run? That thought worries me a little because our back porch has a flight of stairs down into the yard and that is the way Callie goes outside everytime.... not to mention the million times she goes down to the basement and back up everyday. I am curious to hear more about that if anyone has any insight to share. P.S. - Judi, I love your pictures. Those are so precious!! |
| It is hard to stop them but jumping high than a few inches can hurt a pup. Even in agility they wait until they are al least 18 months before doing some serious jumping.
And we also have a jumper. Dixie flies over the couch and will jump over baby gates and up onto our trampoline....with the greatest of ease..and she is a wee thing of about 22 inches... |
| I didn't see the post you're referring to - don't you hate it when work interferes with keeping up with sheepie posts? Anyway, we live in a 2 story house and Bailey flies up and down the stairs. Sometimes just for the joy of it. At this point it's way to late to try to keep him on one floor, so I guess we'll have to take our chances. Hasn't bothered his hips so far.
I wish he was more of a leaper, darn dog refuses to jump into my husband's truck. We have to hoist him into the back seat. He's just lazy, or entertained by the fact that we spoil him so much.  |
Bailey's Mom wrote: I didn't see the post you're referring to - don't you hate it when work interferes with keeping up with sheepie posts? Anyway, we live in a 2 story house and Bailey flies up and down the stairs. Sometimes just for the joy of it. At this point it's way to late to try to keep him on one floor, so I guess we'll have to take our chances. Hasn't bothered his hips so far.
I wish he was more of a leaper, darn dog refuses to jump into my husband's truck. We have to hoist him into the back seat. He's just lazy, or entertained by the fact that we spoil him so much. Ditto on all accounts! Although since getting his haircut (I have no idea how this correlates) he's been climbing in on his own, but it's the saddest decrepit looking climb ever. And, he'll only do it on the way to the dog park, he's too tired after he's done to expend all that effort so then I have to hoist. I figure just the strain on his hips alone that I'm saving by hoisting should allow him to bound up and down the stairs. |
| Yup, got a leaper here too! Why do you think we named him "Pogo"...ya know like a Pogo stick!
Runs to the door and jumps and jumps (cause that's what tiggers do!) until I make him sit before allowing him to go outside. Surprises me sometimes when I call him up on the couch, he doesn't run around to the short side, he bounds right up from the back or side where it is tallest. We don't have stairs around here, but one time, while running full sprint, he thought he'd play superman and leap a concrete water drain (about 6' wide). Scared me to death...he didn't make it, but at least he didn't do any major damage (scraped his manly parts a bit as they scabbed over). Thankfully the water drain had grass on either side of it. Keep the stories coming, I love to hear from everybody! |
| MO is a leaper too. Also a wee sprite of a sheepdog, she has been clearing obstacles the larger dogs can only dream of mounting. Alas, at 8 and with the arthritis (probably caused by an injury leaping at one point) she has modified to Wonder Woman act to graceful gliding. Oh, just the other day she forgot and cleard the club chair and oversided foot stool with only one paw on the chair top for aid (years past she'd sail right by my head......weeeeeeee).
Sorry your hip prevents agility work, perhaps you could just participate in the jumps or find someone younger to run your dog.........Jr. Agility Handler, now there's an idea. |
| Tuc is also a leaper. I thought we went seriously wrong with crate training when I started finding him sleeping on top of the crate instead of in it!!!! its one of the soft crates and an extra large, so its pretty tall.
Come to find out it was blocking his view from the window it was infront of LOL Running start and dead stop ontop of his crate  |
| Ha to funny Laika also love to leap on to "her" futon which she could just as well walk on it is so low but she will run and jump over the table to get there! But as I read the getting into the truck post, it made me think "what a bugger" she won't jump into the car. She puts her front legs in and lays across and waits until I lift her backend in for her! Spoiled!! |
| Well I am glad we are not alone - we sort of have the same problem with the car but I REFUSE to put him in sometimes and just nudge his butt forward until he climbs in.
But most interesting is what Nicole said about Dixie and Susan said about MO - they are small. So is Harry! He doesn't even weigh 60 lbs. I bet that makes a difference. |
| I think a smaller dog does make a difference in terms of what activities they are capable of and or enjoy and therefore do more frequently. Dancer is a small sheepdog, and smart as a whip, so I have been thinking about doing agility with her too. |
| Our breeder asked us to keep Bingley away from stairs until he is at least 9 months old to keep stress away from his hips. Although his parents and grandparents all have good hips any added stress put on a big dog's hips - especially when they are growing - could just help hip dysplasia along.
Here's an interesting article: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... icleid=444 One part of this article is quoted saying, "Exercise may be another risk factor. It appears that dogs that are genetically susceptible to the disease may have an increased incidence of disease if they are over-exercised at a young age." It goes on to say that a well-muscled dog is less likely to contract the disease, so of course it's not a "lay down the law" type of thing. Still, becuse of this potential risk we are keeping Bingley away from stairs for a while. We're also not going to be doing any long walking with him until he is older and more developed - just to be on the safe side. When he's 13 with no hip dysplsai (we hope) we'll never know if it was because we were a bit cautious while he was little or if he just wasn't pre-disposed to hd. STILL I'd like to do everything I can to provide him the highest quality of life in the long run.  |
| Bingly has a lot of growing to do. No use putting more stress where it could cause damage. Pups who have room to move on their own and stimulation to do so, exercise sufficiently. While his body is growing, you can exercise his mind by teaching him his manners. |
| Our Ollie was a natural athlete. He was always very slim and muscular - comes from living on a farm and being a real working sheepdog. He would jump on or over anything. He was so graceful - he was wonderful to watch. He always jumped up onto his grooming table, he loved it so much. He jumped into our pickup -over the sides or tailgate in the up position. We clocked him running at 32 MPH, and it looked effortless. We attributed it in part to his correct comformation - he had the curve in his spine so his loin area was higher than his hips. He was spring loaded! |
| I'd never heard the 'no stairs' rule before. It wouldn't be possible in our house. We have steps to get into and out of the house, and a basement (nice on those hot summer days) and all the bedrooms are upstairs (what? be separated from people?). Neither our oldest dog, who has since passed away, nor our 7 year old, had any problems with their hips. Merlin (the late) did have a problem with compressed vertebrae towards the end of his life (after he was 13) which could have been the effects of age, or possibly from a fall he had when he was about a year and a half old, when we were hiking.
However, I would like to stress that how much the dogs go up and down stairs has always been up to them, except if they're really wet and muddy, which means they have to go downstairs to be dried off/cleaned up. |
SamSun is a leaper too! Every night SamSun plays with Soffe and Naketa in the living room. He goes wild. He jumps over my legs, my husbands legs and the coffee table all at the same time!  |
| What a cutey and a bouncy zest for life spirit. How cute his antics are. Copper our oes mix is quite the leaper too. He's about 65 #. Hannah and Katrina did quite a bit of jumping and bounding down stairs but it seems to slow with each year.
Glad he's so boisterous and full of life. |
| Thank you for your comments about SamSun. He is definately full of life! Sometimes I think he is half Jack Rabbit. LOL! One time when he was about a year old we coaxed him into jumping up on the pool table. And of course you know what happens after that.....show him one time and he thinks he can do it forever. I had to nip that one in the bud real quick. I think my relaxtion every night is watching the 3 of them play. The bad thing is SamSun has ruined my loveseat because he uses that as a trampoline. He runs into it, springs backwards and then that's when he leaps over our legs! |
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