Thread: Training Contact Equipment for Agility

There are advantages and disadvantages of both stopped and running contacts, and a lot to consider when deciding which one to train.

Stopped contacts

Advantages:
* You can teach the foundation/groundwork at home with no or minimal equipment that can be found or made at home such as a small plank or stairs
* Does not require as much access to equipment to get a reliable performance
* Easy to see if your dog has met the criteria when practicing the obstacle
* Easy to turn the dog after the obstacle

Disadvantages:
* Slower than running contact
* Some debate on whether having the dog stop when coming down an incline may cause long term injury
* Some dogs may creep along to their contact position instead of confidently going to it

Running Contacts

Advantages
* Faster!
* Looks more natural/comfortable for the dog as the dog does not have to stop
* You can teach some of the foundation/groundwork at home but it does require some equipment

Disadvantages
* Requires more time and more access to equipment to get a reliable performance than stopped contacts
* More difficult to see if your dog has met criteria when practicing obstacle - you need to be good at seeing if they hit the right spot at speed
* More difficult to turn the dog after the obstacle so more of a chance of taking the wrong obstacle next

Next I will show with videos some of the common ways to train them

OK I'll start with stopped contacts as that will be shorter lol.

Generally with a 2o2o contact you teach the dog to go to a nose or foot target, then place the target at the bottom of stairs or on the ground at the end of a short plank or you shape the dog for 2o2o position on a plank.

2o2o nose touch at the end of stairs

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkbmKACaHpk&feature=related"]YouTube - Shejpa's nose touches[/ame]

2o2o on a small plank

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbhAmCHfVkw"]YouTube - Travel Plank[/ame]

Once the dog is doing this confidently and will drive to the position independently of where you are you backchain the contact behaviour onto the A-Frame or Dogwalk.

Stride regulators are sometimes used in both running and 2o2o contact training to encourage the dog to stride confidently and take a bigger stride over the apex of the A-Frame

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0NJU_podRA&feature=related"]YouTube - A Frame Stride Regulators[/ame]

Running A-Frames

So far the running A-Frame method I like the best and am thinking of training is the box method by Rachel Sanders. I like that you can do a lot of the work on the flat first and that the target area is big enough for me to see if the dog hits it easily.

First you shape the dog to jump into and out of a PVC box that is the size (or slightly smaller) than the contact area

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZzDZUHnPpU"]YouTube - Stat A Frame Box Session 1 5-7-09[/ame]

Then you add a grid with 2 jumps to simulate the distance from the apex of the A-Frame to the ground

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zM30j7uBPk&feature=related"]YouTube - Running Contacts May 2 2009[/ame]

Then you backchain the A-Frame with the box on the contact area

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLarKr__qh8"]YouTube - 2009 06 01 Trek Aframe[/ame]

Until you can run the A-Frame with the box on there and the dog will reliably land in the box

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psMbZM7i690"]YouTube - Josie, Running Aframe, 10 August 2008[/ame]

Then you fade the box.

Running Dogwalk

Training a running dogwalk looks more difficult and very time consuming! I am not going to train one as I don't think I will be quick enough to see if the dog does it correctly and I think it will be hard to turn the dog afterwards.

The most popular way of training a running dogwalk seems to be to start with running the dog on a plank on the ground, teaching them to run fast and stride well along the whole plank, running through the contact area without jumping off early.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogy4xrfVozo&feature=PlayList&p=EA695BBFD9E B0F68&index=4"]YouTube - Gorgeous' Video Diary Running Contacts - Day Twenty-Four[/ame]

Then slowly raise the plank

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qWTJXEX_KY&feature=PlayList&p=EA695BBFD9EB0F68&ind ex=6"]YouTube - Gorgeous' Video Diary Running Contacts - Eleventh Week[/ame]

Raise it more

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDhqskyA1aU&feature=PlayList&p=EA695BBFD9E B0F68&index=8"]YouTube - Gorgeous' Video Diary Running Contacts - Fourth Month[/ame]

Then backchain onto the dogwalk

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0Zcneymm5U&feature=PlayList&p=EA695BBFD9E B0F68&index=10"]YouTube - Gorgeous' Video Diary Running Contacts - Sixth Month[/ame]

The other method for training a running dowalk is to use a foot target that is first trained on the flat then added to a plank

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWjIP-zx4SM"]YouTube - Eri target[/ame]

Then raise the plank

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11sZ72Vc3VQ&feature=related"]YouTube - Eri contact training 2[/ame]

And backchain on to the dogwalk like the other method

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJPei8V3evE&feature=related"]YouTube - Eri contact training 4[/ame]

If I decided to train a running dogwalk, this is probably the method I would choose.

LOL Adam like in most sports there are people who take it more seriously and more competitively than others. Some people are just happy if their dog will do the equipment, but if you have a fast dog and want to be competitive it is a good idea to train for a specific behaviour or the dog may get excited in competition and miss contacts, which means you miss out on qualifications.

When I first started training Zoe, who is 9 1/2 years old, people didn't train for specific contact behaviours, or if they did it hadn't filtered down to club level yet. They just taught you to give a slow command to slow the dog down so it didn't jump off early. I wasn't able to compete with her as she is dog aggressive.

The sport has progressed a lot now, and some people have fast independent obstacle performance so you don't have to be right next to the dog for the dog to do the obstacle - which is what I am aiming for. More difficult than you think!

This is the course design for the World Championships in agility. You need good teamwork to navigate it!

Here is Silvia Trkman, a well known international agility competitor, running it

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDEHk9BcwZk"]YouTube - WC agility 2006 Basel[/ame]