Contacts

[t-dog]

Just wondering what methods you all use to train contacts. I presently have good contacts about 50% of the time, the other times he slows down towards the bottom then leaps off missing the contact. I currently train with the two on two off method, but he clearly hasn't grasped it yet. he's pretty good at training but in competition forget it. I've been competing just over a year with a 2 and a half year old cross.

I was thinking of trying to retrain the contacts using a different method, maybe a running contact etc.

Just wondered what other methods are used and how successful they are in competition? Sorry if this subject has been covered in the past but please humour me before I pull my hair out

[Paula]

I do running contacts with both my dogs but am currently changing to 2 on 2 off with Suzi and she is normally so fast and far ahead of me I seem to be just shouting look for no real reason.

 

With Dudley in competion I use my hand just in front of him and draw an invisible line for about 9 inches after the contact, I can do this with him as he runs with me.

 

In training I sometimes use a target with him and sometimes don't as this seems to slow him down but speeds up Suzi.

 

Dudey is a medium and Suzi a small, the judges don't seem to mark running contacts in their classes but the large judges seem to.

 

Last night our instructor was telling us that we don't give the contact command soon enough when they are really flying perhaps this is what's happening with you, try giving your contact command as he's going up the A frame or half way along the dog walk.

 

Sorry not much constructive help I'm afraid.

[Dizzycharm]

Dizzy dog learnt the 2 on 2 off really easily, but Twiglett couldn't get the idea when a titbit wasn't there. Was really stuck about what to do - until I tried the clicker. Click and treat the correct position, and blooming henry she got it. Perfect contacts with me running past or to the side.

 

I would definately recommend it (I'd never used a clicker before for anything and was amazed that it worked so quickly).

 

Am also using them for her weaves (currently on channel weaves).

[leonak]

ive been really inconsistent with big dudley and only now is he getting the hang of stopping. he has joint problems so i dont stop him on the a frame. in training i use a ball to get his attention on my hand and lure him so he gets a couple of feet on the contact. so long as i lure him far enough down it mostly works at comps. he went back on the lead for the other contacts, i dont say anything but i run him along and stop him at the bottom. sometimes i use a target but mostly i wait til he looks down then click treat. i repeat this 2 or 3 times then release him. also, i hop him on the bottom of the dog walk and do the nodding thing and thats been good for getting the idea in without running over the dog walk time and again. its got to be really fun for them to be there at the bottom so lots of food. also, i drop the food on the ground not ever from my hand so he knows to look down.

id say get your dog back on the lead, running contacts will probably make the situation worse.

[t-dog]

Thanks for that. I'm still not sure what to do next. If I give the command early, he stops and waits miles before the contact (bad timing on my behalf I think). I used the clicker for a while, which was great but I found he sat and waited on the contact and wouldn't move until I went back and rewarded him (bless him he looked sweet but I felt such an idiot as I raced on only to realise he was still sitting on the seesaw). I've seen the running contact trained with a hoop at the bottom so the dog gets used to running to the bottom under the hoop. I do sometimes use his lead in training but he's not daft and seems to know the difference. He's also much more excited in competition. Ooh, don't you just love agility. It would be so easy if there wasn't contacts......or weaves...or pull throughs

[crazyspaniels]

with Bilbo we did the 2 on 2 off, which meant stopping him and rewarding him, and putting him on the contact if he missed it, but he is steady and easy to slow, with Dobbie I am using a contact marker - top of a tube of tennis balls, which I clicked him to going to and lying down, now using it at the bottom of contacts to get a down touch contact, which will hopefully steady him or he would be leaping off the top of the a-frame without a thought

[leonak]

firstly i would train the target away from the contacts. i use a plastic tin lid. just wait until the look at it and click treat and repeat it until they get the hang of touching it with their nose. ive never known a dog get bored of it as they get fed so often. when youve got that established (and i wouldnt bother using a command) hop them on the bottom of the dog walk/aframe and get them touching the dish like that. each time you hop them on, get them to nod/click/treat 3 times then release and do it again.

i had tried using a command on the dog walk and i found big dudley slowed down, crept down the dog walk and normally leapt off before the contact. im not at this stage yet but im told that you really shouldnt need a command as you are teaching the dog to run to the end of the contact and wait to be released, there shouldnt need to be a cue. i run dudley on the lead quite often to make sure he stops but i never give a command either way.

 

 

Thanks for that. I'm still not sure what to do next. If I give the command early, he stops and waits miles before the contact (bad timing on my behalf I think). I used the clicker for a while, which was great but I found he sat and waited on the contact and wouldn't move until I went back and rewarded him (bless him he looked sweet but I felt such an idiot as I raced on only to realise he was still sitting on the seesaw). I've seen the running contact trained with a hoop at the bottom so the dog gets used to running to the bottom under the hoop. I do sometimes use his lead in training but he's not daft and seems to know the difference. He's also much more excited in competition. Ooh, don't you just love agility. It would be so easy if there wasn't contacts......or weaves...or pull throughs