Hoop Jump Week 2 of 2!

This week Nutmeg learned how to jump through a hoop! I have to say this trick turned out pretty cute, I’m really happy with how it turned out!I made Nutmeg’s hoop out of cardboard, following the instructions I mentioned in my last post. I ended up making it on the bigger side since Nutmeg doesn’t like tight spaces, I think they make her feel trapped. It did take some time to get her to go through the hoop so I think it was a good choice to make it on the bigger side.

Check out this video of Nutmeg learning to jump through the hoop!

I think by learning to jump before learning this trick really helped prep her for hoop jumping. She seemed to have a better understanding of what I wanted her to do compared to when I was teaching her to jump. While learning to jump she would repeatedly try and step over the jump however she did not attempt this while learning to jump through the hoop. I spent a lot of time making sure Nutmeg was comfortable going through the hoop before I started lifting it off the ground and I think it paid off because she immediately began jumping through it even when it was lifted off the ground. She got so good at the trick that she starting jumping through the hoop on her own without any signal from me. As soon as she saw the hoop she would happily hop through.

Nutmeg’s hoop jumping!

I’m definitely giving this trick 5 carrots in both categories. Nutmeg did really well during training, it was nice and easy for me. She performs the trick very well, all on her own so she certainly gets 5 carrots for performance as well.