The desired result.
Okay, I guess technically it’s not related to the NAVHDA Utility Test, but a dog that will jump into and out of a truck bed or similar objective can be a godsend. Now that he’s over two years old and his growth plates are fully formed, let the games begin.
While we are on the road and appearing at the Game Fair in Minnesota, one of my goals has been to get Manny to do the work I’ve been doing for two long years: launch himself into – and out of – the back seat and truck bed where his crate usually resides. At the Fair, he spends considerable time hobnobbing with the crowd from the crate in our Aliner pop-up travel trailer, so that’s also on the agenda.
An interesting sidebar to any “collarwise” discussion has been the key. On the road, I often leave electric collars and their transmitters in the side pockets of my truck doors. While putting away his e-collar in that storage compartment, I commanded Manny into the cab. He launched, and was licking my face (from face level) in an instant. Later, holding the transmitter at the door, he glanced at it, and teleported himself into the seat on command.
After a few days of travel and practice (I may be a slow learner, but I do learn) Manny is now in the seat about 70% of the time on the first command. His crate is in the back of a lifted 4WD pickup, raised higher by my TruckVault so it may as well be the Eiffel Tower to a young dog. But he’s also learning that a bumper is as good as an elevator when I use the same methods.
Cleaner clothes, no back injuries, no ramp to pack, and it looks cool too.
Have you “taught” jumping into things? How? This isn’t the easiest way, and probably not the right way, so help me finish the job correctly!
Scott Linden Outdoors 
I trained my Lab Sam to jump in his crate at an early age by giving him a treat by the tailgate and then placing one in his crate. Bingo no more lifting. Now at 11 years old my wife thought he should have a ramp. Well he took one look at that and jumped in his crate from the side as if to say ramp I don’t need no stinking ramp.
I used to have a one eyed weimaraner. But, as the saying goes, he was blind in one eye and couldn’t see out of the other. He was trained to jump in and out pf the truck bed at an early age. I could open the gate to the back yard and he would run out front, go around to the back of the truck, and jump in. One day I let him out of the yard, paying no mind to the fact that I had backed into the driveway. I walked around the house to find Lovis (short for Low Visibility) sitting with an embarrassed look on his face. He was sitting on the hood.
Hah!