What's the Big Deal About Contacts Anyway?

So, I've spoken about the Hail Mary contacts in an earlier blog and I am trying to improve.

Tazz is so totally Hail Mary that it hurts. I'm starting to even bring my rosary to class and trials.

Now we have Fin.

Do they have an anonymous meeting for people that have screwed up their contacts? I would really need to go and do the 12 steps to better training.

My criteria for Fin: Run as fast as you can on ANY contact obstacle, stop on a dime at the end, front feet on the ground, rear feet on the obstacle, nose touching ground, when released, move straight ahead unless otherwise cued.

Here's what I don't want:

• Run as fast as you can and leap from the top coming back towards me and try and bite me.
• Run as fast as you can and stop halfway down the a frame, look at me and leap.
• Run as fast as you can and skid off the obstacle and bark at me.
• Run slow (not even something I'll laugh at).
• Do all your contacts in practice and go somewhere else and not do them.
• Run as fast as you can sail beautifully over the top and keep going doing a tunnel and three jumps while I'm still trying to get to the end of the dog walk.
• Bark the entire time you are doing the contact.
• etc.

My trainer sent me an email this week. She said, do you want to move to a different class? I actually would like to do more sequencing, but I'm very proud of myself. I told her I shouldn't move until my contacts are better. Fin is a super dog. I'm not going to give up what I want in the long term for what I want now. I'm sticking to this contact criteria until I see it in all venues.

The good news is that I can get her to screw up in practice. Alot of people aren't able to replicate their problems. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have problems.

I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm looking forward to resolving it.

Contact Zones in Agility

One of the most important things you will do with your agility dog is to decide what type of contacts that you require of your dog. There are alot of methods, three I see alot are:

• Two on two off: This is for people that want a very clear criteria for their dog AND allows for catching up on course. What this looks like: Dog runs as fast as possible and stops with two feet on and two feet on the contact zone (often presents as a nose touch to the ground - see Susan Garret or Moe Strenfel videos).
• Running contacts: This is NOT for the typical agility student but is very popular right now. What this looks like: Dog runs as fast as possible striding in the contact zone and off the obstacle often leaving the handler in the dust.
• Four on the floor: I've seen a few people use this, but really don't know what the advantage or disadvantage would be. What this looks like: dog runs as fast as possible striding in the contact zone and downing just after the contact equipment.

The primary objective of any contact obstacle is to get the dog to run as fast as s/he can across the contact, put a foot in the yellow zone, then move wherever you are indicating.

The problem I see is that many people don't do a good job teaching their contacts (me included) and end up with Hail Mary Contacts (aka: say a little prayer contacts).

• Hail Mary Contacts: This is for people like me who have a dog you've totally screwed up and the poor dog doesn't know what s/he should do. You say a hail mary before the run hoping that the dog will move quickly without jumping off the yellow zone. This is not a conventional method taught by top trainers. I am surprised how popular this method is.

You will recognize these "hail mary" contacts by the dog handler team that:

• Dog runs/trots along the dog walk, as they get to the yellow zone the handler yells something similar to, "CONTACT" (usually really loud) while the dog launches himself over the yellow, the handler then usually can be heard saying, "Oh, that's ok" or "Oh you!" or "darn you rover"...etc.
• Dog runs and then slows down as they approach the ramp, stopping a number of times looking at their owner (sometimes wagging tail), while the owner says, "contact" over and over (generally increasing in volume) until the dog either launches early or eventually gets in two on two off.
• Dog runs extremely fast until they reach a contact obstacle. Then walks the contact obstacle and once off of the obstacle, speeds up again.

I hope to rectify my bad teaching with little Fin (we'll see). Poor Tazz, I am just happy when he gets around the course.

There are TONS of videos out on teaching contacts available at http://www.cleanrun.com/. Check them out and see if you can change from the hail mary to a more conventional type of contact behavior.

Accelleration....Deaccelleration

So, all of a sudden, Fin doesn't know how to do contacts any more. It is the weirdest thing. All my trainers and friends say, "This is a good thing...get it out of the way and it won't happen in competition!"

Good thing my ass! I want my beautiful, fast, edgy, barely there, speed demon, crazy, contacts back! Instead I get, is this it? how bout this? This is it, I know. Ok not that, how bout this?

The picture you see is a dog stopping at the top of the A frame and looking at me, stopping halfway down, looking at me, jumping off running by two jumps into the tunnel, looking at me. Me saying calmly, "No, lie down." Her saying in a sing song voice, "I don't hear you!"

God help me. Why oh why.

OK, I know they'll come back. Back to basics with a target. We'll get em back. It's just, come on, we've already been here!

Enough whining or I'm going to have to go into rehab. Let's talk about what this Blog is about.

Today we are going to talk about indicating a turn. What really indicates a turn? Well in my class yesterday, a light bulb went on.

I've been worried that Fin is going too wide on her turns. Even though I've been working on acceleration and deceleration for a while now. Last night I worked on it with Fin without alot of voice (the toughest part for me) and low and behold Fin understands that when I start to slow down, I'm indicating a turn. If I start to slow and cross behind I'm indicating a turn away from the side I'm on, if I decelerate and stay on the same side it is a turn to that side. I don't have to yell anything. How cool is that?

Ok, not cool enough to give up my contacts, but pretty cool nonetheless.

So what I learned in a short 30 minute session is that her going wide was all my fault (did anyone have any doubt that it wasn't my fault?). It was due to me not using proper acceleration/deceleration. One of the tips my trainer suggested (something I should probably know) is when walking my course to not only look for where the turns were and determine the best way to indicate the turn (FC, RC, threadle, Serp), but also to look for where you will accelerate and decelerate. Good advise.

Now I'm going to go work on my contacts.