Contacts are one of the most difficult pieces of equipment to achieve consistency on in agility. There's nothing more frustrating than that elusive clear round almost happening, but your dog flies off the seesaw or misses their contacts on the dog walk and A frame.
1. Ensure your dog has clear criteria
What does this mean? Well, make sure you know what you want your dog to do at the bottom of the contact equipment. So often I get people who have issues with their contacts and I always ask them the same simple question, 'What do you want your dog to do?'. The answer is never hit the contact point. Your dog does not understand this. Your dog will understand a behaviour that they need to do on the bottom of the equipment though. When I watch dogs who have issues with contacts when they come to me for training, I can guarantee that the majority simply do not know what they should do, so have simply made their own decision, which is usually to leap off as high as possible lol.
Firstly do you want running or stop contacts? If you want stop contacts what do you want your dog to do at the bottom of the contact? Do you want them to do a 2 on 2 off contact, nose touch, bow, lie down? Have you trained them to do this until they are released?
For running contacts have you taught your dog to touch the same point of the contact consistently? If using the mat method have you trained the mat beforehand?
Whatever method you choose you must maintain consistency and maintain clear guidelines for your dog. This means making sure they don't come off the contact point until you give them the release cue, or maintaining the position you ask for until released.
Quite often a sign of the dog not understanding the criteria you are asking for, is creeping slowly over the equipment, stopping at the top of it, avoiding it altogether or pretending the contact point is lava.
Consistency always extends to the competition ring. Dogs quickly learn to differentiate between training and competition. Making sure you expect your dog to do the same at a show as training, means the lines don't become blurred for your dog and consistency remains. This may mean putting your dog back on equipment or only going to small independent training shows for a while, but it will mean you wont loose out on the big runs in competition.
2. Proof your contacts in various places
No matter what you are training your dog to do, whether it's agility related or general dog training, you must proof it in different places.
Firstly start by proofing your contacts at training by ensuring you are at different places on the course, run past the equipment, hang back, step to the side, do a blind or front cross. We are never in the same place on an agility course and we must teach our dogs to keep their criteria no matter what we are doing.
You can then take your contact training on the road. Hire different venues, go to different classes, go on training days or camps, go to independent shows or UKA shows where you can NFC (not for competition) and reward in the ring of an actual show. This part of the training is extremely vital and is one most people forget or rush. Just because your dog can perform the behaviour in your normal training field definitely does not mean they can do it elsewhere.
3 Phase out rewards
Ultimately we want our dogs to have consistent contacts when at a competition, but ultimately we cannot reward our dogs in competition. This means we have to phase out the reward gradually. This is something that you must work out for your dog. They need to keep up the motivation to attain the criteria you are asking them for, but we have to work towards phasing out a reward ready for the competition ring. Also keep stopping to reward your dog at the end of the contacts does interrupt the flow of a course, whether you throw a toy (the dog must go off course to retrieve it), play tuggy (your dog has to stop and interact with you) or use food (you have to give the dog the food and so move away from your position towards the dog and the dog has to eat the food before continuing).
Again this isn't something you should rush, and we should never stop using a reward completely, but reducing the frequency of rewards is a vital step in creating consistency.
Finally, make sure you are also maintaining your dogs criteria. So often, especially at a show, the dog can get away with not maintaining their criteria and so the criteria becomes blurred and your hard work has to start again. If you need to pop your dog back on a piece of equipment then do so. If the dog misses their criteria again, then it shows that they do not understand well enough what they need to do in that environment and more training will need to be done.
So have fun training your contacts. Spend time training the end of the equipment, not just the whole piece of equipment. Start from the floor and work your way up. If using a mat, then train the mat on the floor, then on a board on the floor before you even begin to put it on a piece of equipment. If training a 2 on 2 off, then do so on a plank before using the equipment. Make sure your dog has a clear understanding of the criteria and can perform the behaviour consistently without help from you (ie no luring). That way you will set you and your dog up for success.
If you want to know more about training contacts then come along to one of our classes, you can find out more via email tracypeach99@hotmail.com or ring 07914775166
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