Contact training

So..quite some time ago I started contact training with Brandi. I chose the 2 on 2 off method as I had never trained contacts before but I liked the results I saw from fellow competitors that had used this method. It wasnt easy, lots of blood, sweat and tears ( ok no blood but LOTS of sweat and tears ). I knew that if I wanted solid contacts I had to put the time in and persevere, we would get there. During times like this when you battle through a stage, it is so easy to give up on a method and just run the contacts and hope that your dog gets them. That wasnt what I wanted.....so we trained....and trained. Often I thought that Brandi had the position, however when proofing this I realised that we were not solid so it was back to the drawing board. The day came when I could see that she knew what she was doing and she knew her position, she even backed up onto the contact. Yay a break through. We then got to the point where she could do the obstacle and assume her position. Although a bit slow I knew that we just needed to proof and build her confidence. So we did lots of praise on the contact, I wanted her to "want to be in that position". We are now at a stage where her confidence is up and she is really enjoying doing the contacts. We have just started proofing in our local leagues and this weekend we will be travelling to East London and will be entering our first agility show. I am not expecting too much, just want to proof her contacts and have some good rounds.

After this weekend we will have a better understanding of where we are and what we still need to work on

Some pics of Brandi during her contact training

Thanks Nadine for the pics