touch points

[liamo]

I have trained a number of terves for agility with alot of sucess,I find one of the biggest promblems is the on touch point on the dog walk . With the long stride of the tervs they just seem to step over it .The only way I have found to correct it is to slow the dog down but then I loose time. All other touch points seem to be no promblem to train. Any body any ideas
liamo

[lindadobe]

Hello,

I am a schutzhund trainer that plays around in agility. Teach you dog to stop with two feet on the ground and keep two back feet on the contact area. This has helped me in the past.

Linda

http://www.schutzhund-training.net

[liamo]

Hi Linda
that would work for the off touch point, but it is the on touch point, I was having the problem with. I think I have sloved the problem by teaching him an "easy" command. This works by breaking his stride just as he comes up to the touch point and prevents him from jumping over it, with very little time lost in the process.
Liamo

[lindadobe]

Hi there,

How did you teach your "easy" command? I am curious?

Thanks,
Linda

[liamo]

Hi Linda
I taught him the easy command by putting him back on the lead and running up to the dog walk and just as he was about to jump  or stride over the the touch point I pulled him to a stop for a split second and gave the command easy followed by the walk on command .I also did this away from the dog walk by running with him on the lead and suddenly stopping him again for a split second giving the easy command followed by a walk on command. It took afew days but he soon got the idea.The stop is not really a stop more a pause just enough to break the dogs stride.
It seems to haved worked he is hitting the touch point in training all the time now but we will see how he gets on in a trail which we have on sunday,fingers crossed.
Liamo

[hunden]

Hi!

I usually tell my dog to lay down on the touch point when we are training and give him some food. That makes him "think" when we are compeeting and he almoust never jumps over it?

hunden

[liamo]

Hi hunden
that sounds like a good idea. I very rearly use food for training I find a ball works better I wind the dogs up with a ball  from the time they are pups and they would do anything to get the ball.It also keeps them wound up on the course because they know they are going to get a good play when they finnish the round so they try to get around as fast as they can.We finnished our first trial today  since I retrained  Lewis and he got all his touch points perfectly and we ended up in second place in the open agility out of 29 dogs and second place in open jumping out of 22 dogs. I was very happy with the way he ran.I was beaten by two different border collies. Iwill beat them the next time hopefully.I have beaten both of them before.
liamo

[hunden]

Hi liamo!

Its good it worked out perfectly with the touch points and Congratulations for the superb achievements in first Agility competition?

I?m having trouble with the Border Collies too? , but last time I competed we were faster then most of them...LOL? Go Belgians go !?

The reason I give my dog food instead of a ball on the touch points is that he calms down (that?s what I want), that usually doesn?t work with a ball...

hunden

[liamo]

hi hunden
It was not his first competion yesterday,he competed all last year and was in the rossets at every trial untill the last few  when the promblem started with the touch point.I think the belgains are the only breed that can compete with the borders[in ireland anyway].Some of them are as fast as any collie and thankfully  not as lilkely to knock fences. What variety do you run.
liamo

[hunden]

Hi liamo!?

I run with my Tervueren Raider, but we just started last year, had 2 competitions at the end of the season for outside competitions. It worked out fine, we were always in front of around 80 starts even though he has a problem with running to slalom alone and I have a problem running so fast, too much cigarettes I think?

But this year I hope we will kick some Border collie asses... LOL they are darn good!?
But when a border usually makes mistakes because running too fast into things without listening to the owner, then our Belgians are there into place to show true obedience

hunden

[liamo]

Hi hunden
Is the slalom the weave poles? If it is just keep on pratcing you will get there.I can not run to fast myself as I have a gammy leg.I teach all my dogs to work away from me ,this cuts down on the amount of running I have to do and also it allows me to get in to place for hard bits of the course.
try to teach raider to do the weaves with you on both sides as this can be very usefull depending on the course.I find having a steady wait to be very helpfull as a lot of the courses we get here in Ireland can be very tricky at the start and  you can get yourself in a good position while your dog waits.  It also cuts down on some of the running you have to do .
liamo