Contact Training

After working with Elicia late last year, I have decided to retrain Atilla's dogwalk contact to a running rather than 2 on/2 off. I am amazed at how his speed has improved already - which is what I have been wanting- but 'don't wish too hard for what you want'............. his incredible accuracy (never missed a contact at a trial) has gone out the window ! However, we now have the 'wheeee' factor, which is worth it. I am focusing on teaching him to RUN the dogwalk at the moment as that is one foundation skill that I overlooked. At the same time we are working on hitting a contact board with his front paws on the flat. I put the board on my small dogwalk tonight for the first time and in 6 repetitions he only missed one, so I think that is coming along nicely.

I timed his dogwalk performance a couple of weeks ago, just to get a 'benchmark' and he clocked in at 3.06 seconds on one run and 2.96 on the other, but at that stage he was still a bit 'creepy' at the bottom as he wasn't sure if he should stop or not. Now he is very happily 'not stopping' so I'm sure we've shaved that time a bit. I don't expect world class times with 'Mr Cautious' that's for sure, but I am aiming for around 2.5 seconds, as I think this is realistic for him and also fast enough to be competitive here.

I have decided to keep trialling for the time being - at the moment I only want him to continue to run his contacts and if we miss the colour I can live with that for now - I just need to remember not to react and keep running as obviously he doesn't understand his 'new job' just yet. If we need to stop running agility for a bit later on when the board goes on the full size walk then we'll take a break and just do jumping for a bit.

Cruz is doing 2o2o and I am extremely happy with his dogwalk performance. His best time was 2.56 seconds from paw on 'up plank' to nose touch at end. I am considering phasing out the actual nose touch, but need to do a bit more 'research' about this first. I did this with his seesaw performance as he was running to just before the end of the board (about 3/4 of the way down) riding it down, but then sliding into 2o2o with nose touch after the board came down, which was wasting a lot of time. I am now releasing him as soon as the board hits, which he seems to be coping with pretty well. Not the fastest seesaw going, but I am still happy with it.

The A Frame is another story - this would have to be the piece of equipment that I feel the least comfortable training for some reason. Atilla is continuing his 'moving' contact on this - hoping it will become more of a running contact once the touch board goes on but I'm not messing with it until his dogwalk is a bit more under control. Considering I didn't have access to an A Frame when I taught him and he learnt by running a full size frame once a week in class, I don't think he has done too badly but there's always room for improvement.

I now have a height adjustable A Frame but I am not happy with Cruz's speed. Started training a stopped contact, then decided I would train a running on the A Frame only, but his long legs and huge stride were causing problems with this. Reverted back to 2o2o and I was pleased with his speed on a lowered A Frame. As I raised it, he lost speed at first, but then regained it as he became more confident. But we have now been using the full size frame for about 3 weeks and this time his speed has not increased. He has a very fast up ramp, but really slows to hit the position at the bottom, which I don't want. His weight appears to be back and his position is nice, but I would really like more speed. I have now lowered the A Frame again so we will go back and work on this. Timed their frames tonight - Atilla 1.65 with a 'running' (more of a moving) and Cruz 1.88 with a stopped. Would like to get them both around the 1.5 sec. mark if possible.

It's amazing how your expectations change with each dog as you learn more - to think with Yasser I taught him the 'PnP' method (Point 'n Pray) and was really happy with this at the time!