Contact
Obstacle Skills
Enhances or
Develops a solid performance on the teeter, a-frame, and dogwalk
When you look at an agility obstacle like the aframe or dogwalk, you'll see that the end of it is painted yellow. The rules (which are designed to make the sport safe) are that your dog has to touch the yellow part of the obstacle when getting off it. (And sometimes getting on too). When your dog is running full speed, that's harder to do than you'd think!! Most dogs have a tendancy to fly off in an effort to get to the next fun thing as fast as possible. Plus, it takes some muscle to slow down on those contacts!
One popular method of making sure your dog hits the yellow contact is to train the dog to stop with the hind feet on the contact & the front feet off. It's a very easily understood, concrete place for the dog to learn to be. It's also a very good exercise to help develop the specialized muscles for a safe performance.
|
1. You can start bottom contact training at home if you have a flight of stairs or something else that's not too high your dog can get on. If you have a toy-sized dog, a tightly taped phone book (so the pages don't slide) will work. You can also take the top off a plastic Vari-Kennel and place it on the ground. The end result you want is the dog with his hind feet on the stair (or whatever), and his front feet on the ground. Just as if it were an agility contact - you want to teach the dog a word for this position. Most trainers use "bottom" or "touch". I've tried many methods for teaching this, but have had the best luck using a clicker to train it. Put the dog on the stairs. Lift their shoulders till their front feet are off the ground. Then gently drop them into the 2-on, 2-off position. The exact instant their front feet touch the ground, click & say the word you've chosen. Continue to feed the dog treats (fast at first, then slower & slower) as long as the dog remains in this 2-on, 2-off position. As soon as they break it or you give the release word (such as "OK"), the treats get put away. The funnest place in the world for that dog to be is at the bottom of a contact obstacle. |
2. There are lots of dogs out there with only a
vague notion of where their butt is at. It's always just kinda
tagging along behind them. They don't give any real thought to what
it's doing. So when they get on a skinny dogwalk or teeter, their
front end does the task fine, but their back end is all over the
place. And that makes them (and you!) nervous. So before you
introduce them to these obstacles, it's a good idea to teach them where
all their parts are at. There are a couple ways to do that:
|