Up-contact training

If there was an agility fairy god-mother, and I was to be granted one wish, I would choose to eliminate judging up-contacts on all three pieces of contact equipment. It isn’t often that a dog misses the yellow when he gets on the dog walk or teeter, maybe only 5 or 6 dogs out of a hundred are capable of striding over the yellow on a regular basis. Even more rare is the dog that misses the up contact on the A-frame. Of course even though it isn’t often missed, and rarely has anything to do with safety on the equipment, it is still a fault in both USDAA and on the International agility scene. The dogs that normally miss the up-contacts are rarely the ones that can afford the waste of time to slow down to trot through the zone, or whose momentum you want to inhibit by repeatedly stopping them on their approach to the contact. The typical scenario is one in which a dog normally over 21 inches tall, and probably more commonly 23 to 28 inches tall, of average competition speed, begins missing the up on the dog walk. Golden retreivers, flatcoats, german shepherds, belgian malinois & tervs, large cross breeds, and the occasional long strided border collie, who is at least 21 inches tall, will be your typical dog that has a problem with the up-contact. It isn’t common to see a really fast dog missing the up’s, though of course there are exceptions to the rule.

A few times every year one of our students comes to me with the lament that their dog is one of these unfortunate. Hopefully this is a student that has just begun agility training, and has not yet started to compete. To evaluate the severity of the problem, I normally meet with the student privately to test the dogs’ propensity to miss the yellow.

I start the test with the A-frame. When you try this test make sure you adjust the frame to full competition height of 6 feet 3 inches. USDAA is the only organization in the United States to judge the UP on the A-frame, and so it would be useless to evaluate the dog at a lower height. When we see this in class with a beginner dog on a lowered frame, we almost ignore it. We won’t be able to discover if the dog misses at 6.3 until the dog is trained to do a full size A-frame. I have known dogs who will miss the UP every time the Frame is lower than 6 feet, but never miss it at full height. Have someone watch you put your dog over the 6.3 frame at least 10 times at full height and watch to see where your dog hits the frame. If you have no one to watch you, get your dogs feet wet before he climbs so that you can go back and look afterwards to see where his wet feet marks are on the front of the frame, or shake some baby powder lightly on the area in the top foot of the yellow zone and look for the impressions his feet make. Approach the frame at full speed and from a variety of angles. Do a few, then rest your dog, so he is at full impulsion again. If you have missed a few out of the 10 frames, you do indeed have an up-contact problem on the A-frame. Do the same test with the dog walk & teeter, at full speed and from a variety of angles. The test won’t be as valid if your dog is tired, so be sure to do a few then take a break and repeat. Watch for and make notice of your dogs take-off spot on the ground in front of the equipment. This will be useful information as you work on a technique for your dog to touch the UP contact. Remember that only one of your dogs feet need to touch the up-contact zone. Some beginners are confused when they see their dogs front feet stride over the yellow, and are not even aware that the back feet are making plenty of contact with the yellow. If you have a large heavy dog without a lot of impulsion, and your dog only misses one DW out of 10, I would probably experiment with some "speed bumps" and hoops and not take the DW technique any further unless the dogs’ propensity reached higher than 20%. If you slow this kind of a dog down to get the UP, you will be losing precious seconds of time which might be the difference between a Q or a NQ, and you will be encouraging a lack of momentum on the contacts. For the dog that only occasionally misses the UP on the walk or teeter, I would use the speed bump or hoop methods to help raise the percentage of accuracy.

For the UP A-frame I would first use the Harris contact runner method, or try the speed bumps or both.

Speed bumps:
Place a jump bar or tiny cavaletti approximately 18 to 24 inches before the DW or teeter, and 3 feet before the A-frame, to act like a ground bar on a jump. Or lay a piece of hard plastic 2 feet square, just before the dog walk. Many dogs who miss the up on the walk & teeter make their leap to miss the yellow by taking off quite close to the bottom of the equipment. After you performed the Up contact test with your dog, you will know where your dog’s own take off spot as they miss the UP contact is within inches. You will be trying to get the dog to take off for the contact before the ground bar and the Frame or DW, in essence encouraging the dogs stride to end solidly in the yellow zone. You might need to make the bar a few inches high so the dog can’t ignore it’s presence. Or increase the size or depth of the plastic barrier. Again use your helper or instructor as eyes to see where the placement will make a difference for your dog. Since each dog’s stride is different I can’t give you an exact measurement on the placement of the bar. These techniques will help your dog to establish muscle memory, and habituate the early jump onto the dogwalk or teeter and help the dog to land squarely in the yellow. They will make the most difference for the dog that only occasionally misses the UP, and good habit forming will help to eliminate most of the misses. If you have a young dog that occasionally misses, or you think has a propensity because of size or breed,and you want to encourage good behavior from the start, use the ground bar every time you train to try to prevent the bad habit from ever forming. To wean your dog from the ground bar, minimize the size of the bar to begin with, or paint it green to match the color of the grass or surface where you do your training. Then you can progress to using a much smaller dowel or piece of thin wood before you fade the bar away entirely.

Hoops:
Hoops will NOT teach reliable UP-contacts all by themselves, but they can be used to help your dog develop some muscle memory on the equipment. More than that though, they will give you an opportunity to run your dog at full speed without stopping him on each piece of equipment every time you train when you work exercises, and don’t want to slow your dog down to work your UP’s.. Hoops should be approximately the same height as your dog at the withers. Place them about a foot in front of the DW & teeter, essentially right in your dog’s take off spot. If your dog is capable of ducking under the hoop and missing the yellow, you will need to lower the height of the hoop, or place it closer to the contact. Using the hoops will allow you to have 100% accuracy on the UP-contacts without slowing down your dog or stopping him to work your UP contact. Once the hoops are not present though, do not expect the dog to have a really reliable technique. They are a visual aid which would have to be faded, and reinforced, by training some kind of body motion, like the dog dropping his head and shoulders, even though the hoop was gone.

Working the "Harris Contact Runner method" for the a-frame UP
Work your dog in circles on approach to the frame. This will aid your dog to get on the frame at a slant approach and help him learn how to climb properly without having to "launch" himself up onto the Frame. Without describing in too much detail, you simply want the dog to load onto the frame on the corner closest to you, traverse slightly off center so that they are at the apex farther away from you, and then again get off on the corner closer to you. You are making a slight arc from inside corner to outside apex. Contact Sharon Harris at corgilady.com for information about purchase and use of the Contact Runner.

The targeting technique on a "contact trainer" or the full size equipment
For the dog that is missing most of the UP’s on the DW & teeter, this is the most reliable method I have found for training UP contacts. You will need to stop your dog every time they use the walk or teeter for a very long time, before you can even think of fading away the stop. If you have a one year old dog missing most of the up’s, that would mean training the touch technique, and stopping him solidly on the contact in every practice, and every competition for at least a year or longer, before you could begin asking the dog for a stop, but not actually enforcing that stop in competition. Every dog is different and some dogs will habituate the technique, and eventually not need to be stopped. Some dogs will ALWAYS need to be stopped in order to be 100% reliable,

Step one: teach your dog to run to a target and hit it with his front feet or nose. (This is most effectively done with a clicker, but you can do it with treats on a target if you don’t understand clicker training) I use a visible target to begin with, usually a 10 inch square of rubber matting, carpet, or mouse pad. Get a reliable run to the target before you place it on the trainer, slant board or actual equipment. Keep the dog on leash, and run with the dog to the target, mark the touch by click & treat, or by allowing the dog to eat his goodie off the target. Name the target something you are willing to use as your climbing command, like "touch", as this targeting command will be replacing your word for "teeter" or "walk". Before you progress to putting the target on the board, you should be able to send your dog ahead of you to the target ideally from at least 10 feet.

Step two: Once your dog understands a word like "touch" and will run with you to the target and stop, you are ready to place your target on the trainer. Place your target just above the first rung on the board, keep the dog on leash as you give your target word, when the dog gets to the target, click & treat, or allow your dog to eat his food lure which was placed on the target, then release the dog with a specific verbal release like "OK" which will allow the dog to travel over the piece of equipment. I like the dog to be in a "bowing" position, with his front end lowered at the target. His front feet are on the target or close to it, if you have taught a nose touch. His body is straight, and his back feet are off the contact. I want the dog to travel to the up contact as if he was running to a flyball box, and then freeze frame momentarily until I release him from the position. When you give your release word the dog is allowed to travel straight over the trainer, and off, or straight over the actual piece of equipment. I like to use the "contact trainer" because it allows you to work in your living room, or back yard away from agility equipment, and you can do many, many more repetitions, than you can if you use the full size piece of equipment. If you use the full dog walk and release the dog to come off the equipment instead traveling across, it is possible to have that behavior appear in competition if you adjust your position even slightly. Your dog will be twitchy about you crossing behind while he is totally stopped, thinking your are moving to release him from position. I like to release the dog straight over the trainer. You should practice only on leash to begin with, then once you have moved to off leash work try doing cross behinds and varying your position as the dog gets on the trainer. In order to get in as many repetitions as possible on a FULL SIZE PIECE OF EQPT during training, you will need to release the dog from his position without actually climbing the full dog walk or teeter. Give your release word like "OK" and take him off the board and begin the process all over again. You can get 20 target touches in during the time that you can complete 3 or four full size contacts. The advantage of a "trainer" is that you can quickly release the dog and have him travel straight over the equipment after his touch, more effectively simulating what the dog will actually do on a full size dog walk or teeter.

Step 3: Once you have perfected it on the trainer, or doing target touch and release off the board, you are ready use it on the full set of equipment. Your target word will now be your word which sends your dog to the piece of equipment, or you could add the target word to your existing climbing command, like "scramble, touch". Continue to use your visual target for only a short period of time. Start to expect the same behavior without the target present. You may need to fade your target by making it smaller or using it only randomly. If you are using a clicker this is much easier than if you need to fade the food "lure". If you are using a food target, stop putting the food on the target, and begin giving the food from your hand once the dog has gone to his target position. Remember to always release your dog with a specific command to finish the climbing once he has assumed his position at the target. I say" Ok, climb" to release the dog to go over the equipment.

The UP contact, just like the down contact will need constant reinforcement & training throughout your competition career. Choose a specific technique, be consistent, and reward the desired behavior often, and your dog will have a clear understanding of the job you are asking him to perform.

Nancy Gyes, Power Paws Agility, © 1997

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