Flying Poodles

Contact Training

I started serious training of contacts with Dancer today, finally. It took me forever to decide what kind of contacts I wanted. I’d hoped for a running contact but wasn’t getting one once she got excited about the contacts. I finally decided on one-rear-toe-on but of course Dancer had a different opinion. I thought I’d start with the rocker board. Of course, she immediately figured out a nice two-on-two-off bow on the rocker board. I lured it for a bit–lure and click, lure and click, then added the cue (“bow”)… then tried it without luring, and there it was, a lovely two-on-two-off.

Next step is to backchain the bow so that’s she’s running right into that position.

(I do get a nice running contact on the dogwalk if I really manage the contact aggressively… I have to stare at the end of the dogwalk and run right with her, very close. If I look ahead at all, she jumps right off.  Managing the contact is okay with me for now, but long term I’m going to work toward an independent contact.)

Elly was a ball of fire today in our lesson. She was so excited to be doing agility after a few weeks off!