Folks,

I'm looking for a good way to teach contact zones. I've just started my 16 mo. old GSD bitch in Agility. She is small, barely 60 lbs, compact, and quick. High energy too. Excellent agility prospect.

These contact zones are going to be the hardest obstacle on the course. She is so revved up that she zips over the A-frame and dog walk and doesn't make good contact in the zones. The training director insists that she learn these first, and her method of teaching is for me to hoist the bitch up on the contact zone and hold her there while we tell her "Wait" and feed her hot dog treats.

With too much restraint my soft bitch loses her drive and gets stressed. Eventually she feels so much pressure that she loses all interest in the food (and the rest of the course for that matter). We've tried putting food baits at the front and end of the obstacle, but she generally sails right over and ignores the food.

Is this the best way to teach the contact zones? There is only one Agility club in town so ixnay on the suggestion to visit other clubs to observe different TD's.

Yvette

I'd take her over the contact zones on leash, giving the "slow" or "touch" command (if you want an agility trial, you'll hear BC people use these commands to slow their dogs down) with a signal like the palm towards the ground or facing her as a signal that its time to slow down. Then once she's off, let her know she can really ZIP to the next obstacle....

I've never heard of the method you described.

There are some really good agility websites out there that have FAQ sections that may give a different approach to training this....do a search on like Yahoo, Google, or whatever search engine you have, and try "Agility Training FAQs" --- that might bring up some other method to try <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The best way I have seen to train contact points came from my trip to England with Peter Lewis (one of the founders of the Agility dog sport).

Take a holla hoop and stand it on its end (upright - use a dowl with a long nail thgrough the dowl)- teach the dog to go through the hoop on command.

When the dog understands this - put a hoop at both ends of the obstical that has the contact points. The dog MUST GO THROUGH THE HOOPs every time it goes over or comes down the obstical. It does not take long for a dog to learn to approach the obstical with the idea of hitting the lower contact points.

The only time the dog goes over an obstical without these hoops is in a competition.

If you want to see some great training ideas get the training video I did with Peter Lewis. You can read about it on my web site at http://leerburg.com/303.htm

Ed Frawley
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