Why the Jenny?

your actually right on john! coordination is a key factor in the sport.....it is used more the coordination excercise than it is for cardio.......

a lot of folks mistake flirt work for cardio (or worse resistance), while it does provide a higher heart rte anytime your dog is working....sometimes people play tug with theyre flirt pole (which i never do personally) it really the coordination your after.....

what i do is i make em work for it, when they finally catch it i let go and praise (it theyres now! they earned it), teaching that hard work pays off........

most of my flirt sessions dont really go past 15 or so mins for the adults......

for pups, ill play with em for 5 mins or so to keep it fun for them.....


jenny= sprintwork, cardio workout
flirt= mind excercise with minimal cardio

Hello TFX. That was V. Jackson's main way of working his dogs. When he was much younger and lived in Beaufort S.C. He had miles and miles of long soft dirt roads back in the Paris Island Marine base. Wide enough to run two tanks or maybe three.

He was a Supply Staff Sargent and could get or have anything made he wanted. He had the marine mechanics take his old Ford or Chevy Truck and put a speed govern on it. That he could work inside the Truck. He got the Welding shop to make a long arm apparatus that fitted over the hood of the truck. Could be put on and taken off. The arm went far enough out to prevent the dog from getting run over. V.J. could sit in the truck watch the dog. Talk to it when it needed some praise or encouragement.

V.J. fixed a leash hook set up. Where he could release the dog to do 100 to 150 ft. wind sprints. This would occur when the dog saw the shining eyes of the possum in the head lights. A pit dog will sprint like a bat out of hell to get a possum. LOL Ease up along side of dog break dog off possum. Then a short walk to cool down. Right back to road work. The possums would vary from night to night. May have been thousands of possums in that swamp. Never run out of possums. LOL

Would build those dogs up depending on size to be able to lope non stop except for possum sprint stops and urinating stops. For up to 5 miles to 10 miles. Mileage would vary according to type of dog and it's size.

Bad weather days would take dog into Base during day. Had plenty of empty large hanger bay type buildings to access. Would get some of those young marines to hand walk them and jog them. Evening time used his slat mill which was under a small shed.

The rest was good feed. He did not win all his matches. Had a very good win loss record though. The dogs that lost did not lose due to poor conditioning. When he got back to Texas his whole world changed. He was a lot older and went from the humid South East to dry desert type weather in Texas. He had to learn a whole new bag of dog tricks. Like me his get up and go had got up and went. LOL

Many ways to skin a cat and many ways to work a dog. Lots of natural running/sprinting and trotting is hard to beat. It takes a pack of hounds awhile to catch a Wily Coyote. They stay in shape the natural way. LOL

The flirt pole is a great conditioner as well, especially for the dogs that go nuts over the object on the other end. Like all conditioning activities and conditioning tools one must look at what the dog will be doing in competition. The people version would be 'sport specific' training. This concept can be applied to the dogs as well. The dog sees what he wants and explodes after it with all he has targeting his bite to a moving object. Sounds a lot like like scratching to a hold or swapping one hold for another. The flirt pole can lead to what is called a fast mouth dog. The changing of direction, all out one way and in a blink all out the other. This mimics the swapping of a hold or defensive posturing. These movements are bursts, fast twitch muscle fiber, going from all out to nothing (or at least it appears nothing as they focus to move but every fiber of their being is focused on biting what is on the end of the string) which mimics a flurry. And the last it teaches the coordination to bite the intended target. The hardest, fastest mouth is worth nothing if it dives in and comes up with carpet in his mouth. And for me, and the most important, his feet is on the ground and he is not only supporting his body weight but he is changing his direction and propelling that weight forward or whatever direction the target travels.
The Jenny follows suit with the idea of the best conditioners are the ones that keep the dogs feet on the ground. His scratch or his push or his driving is done carrying/propelling his own body weight plus some of the weight of the opponent. On show night the floor will not spin out from under him and propel him into a hold or a deep defensive position. He must do that on his own and it is better for him to be prepared to do so in the same format. Basically when on the ground the dog is always under load in every thing he does, where as the slat mills, especially the really nice ones, he is just keeping up with the belt. There is nothing wrong with a slat mill but if it is so free that there is slack in the chain hook-up there is a lot of wasted motion. If a slat mill is used there should be tension on the chain as the dog is propelling at least part of his weight forward. I personally prefer the carpet mill over the slat mill but that is an entirely different subject.
The first Jenny I ever saw was in the mountains of NC. It was a turn table made out of square steel tubing. The table must have been a 10 or 12 footer. There were two arms that could be added to opposite sides that converted the table to a Jenny in just a few minutes. It was nice. He had a male that could make the arms look like helicopter rotors. That dog could move. The next best one was hidden right in the middle of a horse farm. This place had a motorized horse walker. Kids were learning to ride horses. Horses were put on it for daily exercise. At night the chain was taken off the motor and it was used by the dogs. That is the biggest drawback to the Jenny is its size. The bigger the better but it takes up a ton of room and with that much room, for most, that is very little privacy.
The first Jenny I saw used counterweights on the opposite arm but also had differing lengths of chain to drag for resistance. I built one similar to that one with a table some years back. I liked it a lot and thought the dogs worked it rather well. The key is to start them off young getting the accustom to chasing something they want. I liked the turntable on it as well. Back then we lived on the end of a dirt road with no one around at all. The land leading to us was developed and somethings can't be explained away to the neighbors. So I traded in the jenny and stuck to the carpet mills, hand walking and explosion work. Those can be a lot more private. EWO

I am sure this won't consist of plans but...I made mine from a mobile home axle. It is a 3" steel pipe concreted in the ground with the hub about 3' off the ground. I attached a steel frame to the wheel to make a table. I attached plywood and carpet to the frame to make a running surface. The frame of the table was made out of 2" square tubing. The arms were 12 ft if I remember, maybe 14' that extended out that bolted on or off. One had a the hook for the dog and the bait. Picture a field goal post parallel to the ground. The other had a counterweights attached. I have seen pictures where jugs of water were used as counter weights. Like most effective conditioning tools it is very simple and very basic. Not sure of this helps as far as plans or blueprints go. EWO

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Originally Posted by CRISIS

very true, once the momentum is going all your really doing is "lifting your legs" as compared to running you have no choice but to push your own weight!

which is one reason why i never really understood how the emill benefits a dog........i understand it still raises the heart rate which is the point behind cardio.....but the slatmill seems much more efficiant than the emill would ever be......


anybody have any good plans for a jenny???

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I did not know I was doing it at the time till the round table was complete. I used a older model positive traction Pontiac rear end axle. I put it in the ground deep enough so that when you sat down by the table. It was running just a little under knee high. Running lower to the ground the dogs were much more comfortable and not afraid of falling off the table. I was lucky that it had no bounce problems but run real steady.

Mine was a 16 foot table covered in thick cotton felt well padded but not over padded. I left all the hog head gears/shaft on both ends intact. So when the table revolved all those gears were turning. I made sure all seals were sealed and full of oil with all bearings tight and greased.

What I ended up with was a table that turned no faster than the dog was running. Dog sped up it sped up at same rate of pace and slowed down the same. Never over ran the dog. It was sort of like a Small Jenny with the right amount of Treadmill drag combo.

One other thing I did on this round table was place the overhead pulling beam one foot forward of the center of table. Had three different hook up points to get the dog running in what I called the sweet spot. As dog tired would fall back to center of table and not into the back of it.

My Jenny was a full 80 feet long. Built a soft mulch track and placed some piles of saw dust at the four corners of the circle. When a dog wanted to run to fast would hit those piles and bog down. A few times of this they would settle down and do a nice fast coyote dog trot.

The type Flirt pole work I did was off a overhead cable that was about 75 to 100 ft long attached to two high over head trees. Would give and pull back slowly like a Large deep sea fishing pole. Would flirt dog up and down and do some ahead pulling against the cable. I did use a well made pulling harness. Did not work off a collar have seen vein and artery infection/inflammation done to the neck and throat area.

The outside weather always played a major part of what I used and noted what the dog worked the best. Did have a well made slat mill but seldom used it. Still have to walk them in between cycles of work. If one can get in some AM walking is a plus.

I tried to do a hard day one not as hard second day and easier day third day and then a Rest day. The flirt work being the hardest. The Table next and the Jenny third. Nothing was written in stone. The Weather could play a big part of what one could do. I tried to be prepared for what the situation called for.

Another way to make a swing jenny beam is find some one who sells those small section CB radio towers. The smaller sizes are three pipes welded in a triangle bridge. Came in ten foot sections. Just a thought. Could save a lot of time trying to weld up one or make one like a suspension bride with cables. Good Luck. Just another crazy story of old history and some entertainment.

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Originally Posted by CRISIS

very true, once the momentum is going all your really doing is "lifting your legs" as compared to running you have no choice but to push your own weight!

which is one reason why i never really understood how the emill benefits a dog........i understand it still raises the heart rate which is the point behind cardio.....but the slatmill seems much more efficiant than the emill would ever be......


anybody have any good plans for a jenny???

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an e mill and a slat mill are totally different, but not all dogs are going to run a slat mill or jenny while most will run an e mill. just recently watched STP yard tour and he used an e mill and flirt pole for bad rosemarys first if an e mill is good enough for them it is definitely good enough for me

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Originally Posted by DryCreek

The only focus of using a slate mill is to increase heart and lung longevity.Unless you own a mill with a brake.The brake can be used to create more tension on the front wheels which deflects pressure to make your hound have to work harder to spin that Slat mill.
It is not completely like using a carpet mill but damn close.
When conditioning a dog. The more exercises he or she is involved in will bring you closer to what you are trying to achieve.I find walking a dog for hours on end is just over rated.I walk a dog to empty and that's it. Once he or she is empty, we start the serious stuff.
JM2C

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it depends on how u hand walk if u got a dog that wont do anything but that u can grab a 30 ft lead and hit the trails letting the dog sprint walk and chase things and that dog should be good especially if u add resistance

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Originally Posted by CRISIS

jenny= sprintwork, cardio workout
flirt= mind excercise with minimal cardio

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Totally disagree. A flirtpole provides major cardio if you're doing it right. 5 minutes is not doing it right.

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Originally Posted by CA Jack

Totally disagree. A flirtpole provides major cardio if you're doing it right. 5 minutes is not doing it right.

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I have to agree with Jack on this, the flirt pole sessions I give my dog give him a great cardio workout. The session is 10 minutes, but the method allows for him to go all out every time. This is how it goes,

First round
60 sec work
60 sec rest
60 sec work
60 sec rest
60 sec work
60 sec rest
60 sec work
60 sec rest

Second round
45 sec work
45 sec rest
45 sec work
45 sec rest
45 sec work
45 sec rest
45 sec work
45 sec rest

Third round
30 sec work
30 sec rest
30 sec work
30 sec rest
30 sec work
30 sec rest
30 sec work
30 sec rest

Fourth round
15 sec work
15 sec rest
15 sec work
15 sec rest
15 sec work
15 sec rest
15 sec work
15 sec rest

I got this from a strength and conditioning boxing trainer, I personally used it for my training. By the fourth round he is completely exhausted, I follow it by a 30 min cool down walk. During the rest periods I have him walking next to me.

The flirt pole is excellent cardio work. Anything that provokes a dog to go all out, change direction, and go all out again it is just about as good as it gets in the cardio world. Same as with people. Look at the people exercise and weight loss industry. Shaun T has become a millionaire doing continual non stop direction changing exercises. Flirt pole is continual, non stop direction changing exercises for the dogs. Maybe Shaun T saw a bulldog doing flirtpole work and the light bulb went off. LOL...EWO