I have been thinking lately about what sort of contact performance I want with Spry. Regardless which I choose, I want to start work with her on it fairly soon - whether it's teaching her 2RTO behavior or how to run a board on the ground.
Here are my thoughts. My first thought was to teach her running. With Panic I taught 2RTO and then later converted to running. We are starting to now get pretty consistent with that, but it would have been MUCH easier to train running from the get-go. We still have lots to work on though, including turns off of the contacts. that needs improved a lot. If I do running contacts with Spry, I want to teach her that from the beginning. Here is a list of pro's and con's for each:
Running Contact Pros:
- She will be competing with BCs and any milliseconds saved can be important
- Avoids any conflict of the dog wanting to run and getting frustrated when they have to slow down/stop
- Physically easier and nicer on the dogs body than the shoulders slamming into a stopped position (biggest problem on the Aframe)
Running Contact Cons:
- She may not be the best at tight turns. At this point it's hard to tell because she's still gangly, but her "type" is kind of lab-like and I'm afraid she'll have a hard time making tight turns... which means running could be difficult with something like an off-course tunnel facing her at the bottom of a contact obstacle.
- Time consuming to teach, and I don't have any contacts at home so I have to go to the building frequently to teach them.
- What if her stride is not natural for this?
Stopped contact pros:
- Easy to teach 2RTO behavior at home with short board
- Much more reliable, even with a perfectly trained running contact dog.
- Easier to re-direct after contact
Stopped contact cons:
- Not as fast
- Can be rough on dog's body
I guess the only big reason to do a running DW is speed really. Linda Mecklenburg's Wonder is just breathtaking to watch on the DW. However, I don't have the time or resources Linda has to work on running DW training. I think while writing this post, I may have convinced myself to do a stopped DW and Teeter, and running Aframe. Maybe I will teach a running A-frame, while at the same time working on 2RTO behavior, and if I see that she very easily and well understands to go ALL THE WAY DOWN with running, I might try it on the DW. I don't know!!! Any suggestions anyone?
2 comments:
Fin's running aframe was really easy. I did a lot of ground work and it didn't take much time on the actual frame to get the behavior (maybe like 6-8 sessions to get to full height over a 6 week period).
Feel free to email me for details.
Oh, and I meant to write before that if you're up in the Cleveland area and want to put Dexter on some more rubberized contacts, I've got them (although it's all slatless).
I vote for stopped DW & teeter, running frame. Like you're thinking. The stops are easy to train and maintain with a travel board. I don't have access to a full-size DW for about half the year often enough to maintain a running DW.
Post a Comment