Dylan's Blog – EMDAC

We had a lovely, long 4 days at EMDAC last week, and Kim was a superstar and won another agility class and got a handful of placings in some others, I was thrilled to bits! She’s now top of the Agility League, the Jumping League and the Intro Medium DOTY League. She also managed to knock 2 seconds off her CleverDogs time, isn’t she fab?!

Dylan was introduced to the A-Frame and did really well. With a little help from K (and Jet!) we did a little backtraining to his 4off contact, which he did nicely. I also let him run the whole thing, once, right at the end, mainly because I was interested in seeing how his long stride would carry him over. He got his contact and a bit play afterwards, and so I was pleased. I wish I had a full-sized AFrame to play with, because I’d definitely look into using stride regulators and teaching him a running contact instead, but unfortunately access is limited and so I think this is the best way forward.

I had planned to do 4off on the dogwalk too, but after I walked him over it a few times, Dylan seems more naturally suited to the 2on/2off, especially since the angle isn’t as steep and that long stride may mean he misses the contact all together if I do go for a 4off. Luckily, me changing my mind at this stage doesn’t mean re-teaching anything, since we haven’t done enough of the contact equipment for Dylan to have learnt how to do it anyway. I have had to rethink using a target — obviously his target command requires him to down on a nose touch, which isn’t want I want for the 2o/2o. I think instead I’m going to use a kind of contact board, and teach Dylan to stand with his back paws on the board and stop in a stand-wait. We’re going to start today (with the new clicker I finally bought!)

We have a half-size DogWalk to play on now, which will certainly be helpful too. Kim loves it!