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AG220: Building and Maintaining Stopped Contacts

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  • Syllabus
  • Prerequisites & Supplies
  • Sample Lecture
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AG220: Building and Maintaining Stopped Contacts

Course Details

Many dogs start out their agility career with good stopped contacts. But over time, the behavior or the criteria changes and morphs into something undesirable. What causes that to happen?

 

This class focuses on the training or retraining of a stopped end position contact performance. It can help retrain dogs that are currently trialing. And, it will help young dogs build these skills from the ground up. It won't work of any of the full contact equipment. Contact execution issues are almost always related to confusion in the performance or criteria of the stopped position. Once the handling has been addressed and the stopped position has been taught and polished, your dog's confidence will improve. With confidence, the contact execution will also improve prior to that stopped position.  I have found that transitioning to the full contacts is very easy to do for the Aframe and the dog walk. Transitioning to the teeter takes a little extra time because of the nature of that obstacle (it moves and makes a sound).

 

Please do not take this class if you plan on trialing in agility trial classes with contacts during these six weeks. It will take a few months of retraining both you and your dog before trial behavior is similar to training.

 

If you have worked through my AG140 - Building and Maintaining a Start Line course, then you will have a slight advantage during this class. There will be similar concepts and handling which will benefit you. If you have not taken AG140, you will learn the same handlng and training strategies in this course and apply those to contacts. 

 

This class will have a Teacher's Assistant (TA) available in the Facebook study group to help the bronze and silver students! Directions for joining that Facebook group will be in the classroom after you register.

 

Here is your TA, Heather Sather, showing her Dutch Shepherd, Mazi in Novice standard. She has worked through my program and has LOVELY stopped contacts.

Nancy Gagliardi LittleInstructor: Nancy Gagliardi Little

Nancy Gagliardi Little (she/her) has been training dogs since the early 1980s, when she put an OTCH on her Novice A dog, a Labrador retriever. Since then she has put many advanced obedience titles on her dogs, including 4 AKC OTCH titles, 6 UD titles, 3 UDX titles, and multiple...(Click here for full bio and to view Nancy's upcoming courses)

 

Syllabus

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Week 1

 

Clean Cues

 Event Markers

 Similarities and Differences between Contacts and Start lines

 Where it Goes Wrong

 Criteria

 

The Release

     - Why a Stationary Release

    - Handling

 

Reinforcement Strategy

      - Zen Bowl

     - Building Toy (or Food Toy) Reinforcement into the Release

 

 

Week 2

 

The End Position

 How to Handle Mistakes

 

 Stationary Handler Position

     - Stationary Lateral distance

    - Stationary Forward distance (recall)

    - Combining skills (lateral & forward)

 

 

Week 3

 

Handler Motion

     - Parallel Motion

    - Angled Motion

    - Send Ahead

 

 

Week 4

 

Handling - Crosses

     - Front Cross

    - Rear Cross

    - Blind Cross

 

Combining Handling Skills

 

 

Week 5

 

The Exits

     - Straight ahead

    - Turn towards handler

    - Turn away from handler

    - Tunnel discrimination

 

 

Week 6

 

Sequencing

 

Prerequisites & Supplies

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Recommendation:

AG140 - Building and Maintaining a Start Line is not a prerequisite, but if you have worked through this class you will already have knowledge of part of the handling that is involved. I highly recommend reviewing it again, if it's in your library. If not, you will learn everything you need for stopped contact handling in this class.

 

Prerequisites:

8' x 12" or 12’ x 12" training plank or board - Training planks shorter than 8' will not work. So no planks smaller than 12" x 8'. These training planks must be stable and should not move when the dog runs across it. It must lay flat on the ground and shouldn't be raised - meaning no supporting legs underneath. The board can also be the teeter or dog walk plank. Any board that is used, but be stable enough for the dog to run across without any movement or wobble of the board.

 

The plank below would not be allowed because it is raised and unstable.

 

Not legal platform

 

Two or three jumps (used in Week 6)

Tunnel (optional - used in Week 6)

Minimum 40 x 40 area. Early training can be done in a smaller area.

2 soft crates or two identical targetting options like Fitpaws, front foot targets (Week 5)

Sample Lecture

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Strong start

If your dog’s stopped contact performance started out strong and then fell apart, how did that happen? If you have a dog that has not competed and you want to train a brilliant stopped contact performance, how can you make sure that the behavior doesn’t fall apart?

 

Reinforcing behavior

Behaviors increase and become stronger when they are reinforced. Reinforcement happens when the dog accesses something they love (example, food or toys). This can also happen by when the dog performs a behavior that has been highly reinforced. When the dog accesses an obstacle that has been highly reinforced after exiting the contact, the entire contact performance is reinforced after the execution of that obstacle. 

The reverse also comes into play. A history of unwanted behaviors can be built into the contact performance, when the dog repeatedly continues forward after an undesirable stopped contact behavior. If that continues, the entire contact performance will become stronger in that environment. That’s why so many dogs have different performances at the trials. The environment becomes a strong cue for a different performance. There is also an emotional component in play, too. If there is stress or confusion, skills will disappear. It’s a complicated behavior chain that must be unraveled for individual dog and handler teams.

Because it can be tricky to reward your dog’s stopped contact performance in a trial, it’s important you work hard at exposing your dog’s trained routine to many situations, environments, and distractions. In an environment that has lots of distractions (like trials), your dog’s performance will get tested. If the training has also been tested and the handling and the release cue is clear to the dog, then those new situations shouldn't be an issue and can be easier to reinforce.

 

For the love of agility

Most dogs that do agility LOVE it. Training the obstacles and sequences with positive reinforcement, creates a strong desire to interact with them. “Going” becomes a highly valued reward for the dog. If you do not train or handle the stopped contact performance properly with clear criteria and cues, then your dog can get confused.  Then those lovely stopped contacts will start to deteriorate - maybe without you even recognizing the first signs. Your dog's behavior might start to change in classes or trials when you feel rushed or when you disconnect from your dog (Example - thinking about the sequence ahead or talking to your instructor while your dog is stopped). You might also be unaware of signals or patterns that unintentionally become confusing to the dog.  And for some dogs, there can issues caused by stress or frustration. That creates a negative conditioned emotional response. And when that happens, you no longer have a dog that can think clearly. Anything can happen!!

 

What causes behavior to deteriorate?

Here are some examples of handler behavior that can cause a good stopped contact behavior to deteriorate:

  1. Attempt to control the dog’s behavior
    • Backing up or facing the dog while the dog is stopped in position
    • Repeating the stay cue while moving forward
    • Physically attempting to control where the dog should go
    • Overly demanding/punitive or loud tone to stop the dog's movement or to cause the dog to stay (example, "YOU STAY")
  2. Being disconnected or distracted while the dog is stopped in position
  3. Using unpredictable patterns or unintentionally pairing the verbal release cue with motion
  4. Showing disappointment and/or negative emotions with the dog's performance

 

Conclusion

Your dog learns the stopped contact performance that you create - intentionally or unintentionally. 

The best approach is to train an independent stopped end position behavior to your dog. This will help get you ahead or keep you ahead of your dog.

 

Testimonials & Reviews

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A sampling of what prior students have said about this course...

“I fall in the category of someone who started with stopped contacts, but pretty much lost them over time and even when we had them, I never had any independent performance of them. This class has changed all that for me. Nancy has presented a very through step by step process to teach a stopped contact behavior, in a manner that even the most beginning team can follow. And she is an amazing instructor, with insights and helpful instruction for a variety of dogs and handlers, both beginners and experienced. I loved this class! In addition to getting a stopped contact behavior back, my dog now also has a very independent performance of it. And, as an added benefit, I have  become much more confident performing crosses behind and after the contact. Like all of Nancy’s classes this is definitely a must!”

Registration

Next session starts: April 1, 2021
Registration starts: March 22, 2021
Registration ends: April 15, 2021

Registration opens at  9:30am Pacific Time.

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