How do I teach my dog to jump over obstacles?

Question

When we go for a walk me and my German Shepherd are passing from an obstacle that is not very tall and the dog can jump over it. The obstacle is like this but without the middle metal part (the one that has the lock). I'd like to teach the dog to jump over it just for fun but I don't know how to make him know that I want to jump over it.

I try to make moves to show him that I want him to jump but we tries to pass around it or under it. How can I make him understand that I want him to jump over it?

(Of course I don't want to force him to do anything that he doesn't want but he usually likes running and playing while we are walking and most of the times he tries to tell me he wants to run so I figured it would be cool to put something like this in our walking routine)

Answer 1

Smart dog... why jump if you can just walk under?

Ok, serious answer: start out with something just high enough to require a little hop. When he hops, add the command, praise him, reward him... basically, do whatever you did to train him any other commands he knows!
Once he understands that you actually LIKE it when he jumps over such an obstacle, you can start using higher ones. He should get it quiet quickly then.

From Comment about how to get him to hop over anything a tall: by @keshlam:

Patience. Start with the obstacle flat onthe ground so it's step over, and line yourself up so he's coming straight to you. Reward going over rather than around. Do this for a while. Raise it slightly and reward going over rather than around. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Eventually the dog will get the idea.