Amanda Shyne, some notes

Training the dog walk, reinforcing the Independence in the contact
Charge ahead
Stay behind
Move away laterally
Release the dog either in motion or totally still. Reward, backup, run ahead and then release
Can be anywhere and send the dog to the target at the end of the contact
do it with speed
two jumps at the bottom of the A-frame. Dog jumps and gets into position

Approaches
put two dowels (or jump uprights and fade to dowels) at the start of the contact, about a foot away. Have the dog approach and line up straight. Reward before the dog gets on the contact. You are rewarding that the dog lines up straight. Train from all angels and speeds. Can do on a flat board.


A release word is a command. They dog must move upon the release word. Interesting, Split does not do this unless I am moving. So release is two things at the contact the word and motion

If you are throwing a toy to keep the dog moving forward, you have to keep moving yourself (a LM principal)

Teeter
Games...
Be at the end with a tug (standing to the side) , have the dog charge onto the teeter, and tug with them

Back from vacation...

We are back from vacation! In that week I decided not to think about two agility problems that I have been dealing with, one for each dog. Sometimes when I let problems sit for a while the solution comes easier.

I have been wanting to watch the Amanda Shyne video on contacts (http://www.agilityvision.com/dvd-contacts-360-amanda-shyne) to see if I could ferret out some ideas for Split's A-Frame. He is a long strided dog and will either jump over the contact or touch it with his back feet. The back feet are perfectly legal, but judges don't always catch that he touched the yellow. I haven't gotten any new ideas for Split, which is leading me to believe that a 2o2o might be the only answer right now. I am not a fan of 2o2o on the A-Frame because I think it is hard on their shoulders if they are speedy (yes, I am aware of the methods that people teach so that the shoulders don't get pounded). I have complete faith that if Split understood what I was asking he would do it. He is very biddable.

Incidentally, Amanda touched on dropped bars and gave me some ideas for Tip's issue of dropping bars. Amanda does jump circles with her dog Dilly. She runs them from the very center where she does not have to move that much. Then she runs them very close to the jumps, this creates more motion on her part which is what the dogs have trouble handling. This is true for Tip as well. In thinking through this it makes sense. Once the dog runs clean, you move a jump. It helps them gain experience in different jump lengths which can also create dropped bars.

I will begin to incorporate this into my training plan.