Here’s an amazing video of a mixed-breed cattle dog named Geronimo, who has developed a unique talent: double-Dutch rope jumping. What’s incredible is how she times her entry between the two ropes and then gets right into the rhythm. She clearly loves it, for the joy in her demeanor is readily apparent.
On her YouTube page, Valle explains how Mo’s double-Dutch skill was developed:
Now, about this trick. This trick took 5 straight weeks until it was perfect for me to call complete. I practiced it every single day, several hours a day. Now, there are alot of hours in a day, folks, and I like frequent breaks (although mo wonders why we are stopping and not jumping all day long 😉 Mo will work all day, she loves to EAT!! This is the first time Ive trained this specific trick so it was all trial and error. There was no specific steps I really took that made a huge difference. All I can really remember doing is trying a bunch of different things, rewarding her small successes until the trick was complete. To the lovely people that are asking about the stick on the ground. I trained Mo to jump behind the stick. It has nothing to do with the ropes itself. This trick is so amazing because of all the things going on at once. Think about it….she has to find that “sweet spot” in the rope where she can jump in, wait for the perfect time to jump in, watch the board on the floor and the ropes at the same time so she knows where and when to jump in, then she must time the jump perfectly, land, and immediately find the rhythm of the ropes and jump. shes just not running and gunning it. she waits for the right time (which through hrs of practice, has figured out) and jumps in. The stick is there to keep her in the middle of the ropes, as i found out by teaching my other dogs to jump with just one rope, that they all want to jump right on top of you or into you really closely. My vision for this trick is exactly how you see it now….a dog that runs and jumps into 2 ropes while staying in the middle as if it were jumping like a human. Im happy with the end result. Mo is happy to jump, and I hope you all are happy to view her video and watch her having a good time.
