Crazymaesy Agility Training

Contacts Movie Clips

Here is where we will place movie clips showing the contact performances that we expect from Crazymaesy trained dogs. To start with we have Jo and Shark in training mode, completing the equipment as quickly as possible but holding the end position until released. The clips are all only a few seconds long and are low resolution so that they will not take too long to load over a dial-up connection. However, trust us that they are all “one take” and haven’t been speeded up!

Dog Walk

Note that Jo is nowhere near the dog walk, the dog is trained to find it, complete it quickly and pause until released. Note also that on release Shark does not come to Jo, she looks for the next obstacle.

Click here for Shark on the dog walk.

When the release comes as the dog is descending the down plank the result is a fast and accurate running contact. But Jo won’t do that unless she needs the extra speed in competition so we’ll have to wait for that clip!

A-Frame

Again, the dog’s performance is independent of what the handler is doing.

Click here for Shark on the A-frame.

Note that the dog hits the contact with the front feet before dropping to the “ two feet on two feet off” position, so an early release will still result in an obviously made contact.

Seesaw

Or teeter for our American friends! In this example Jo has left Shark in a wait and runs on ahead of the contact. However the same performance would result if she were behind the dog.

Click here for Shark on the seesaw.

Shark is quite light, so the desired seesaw performance for her is to race to the end and wait to be released. Jo can give an early release in competition as Shark’s back legs will push the seesaw to ground before she alights. For some larger dogs it can be safer and more effective to work at a more even pace so that their weight grounds the seesaw when they are a little past the pivot point.

Contact Training

We filmed Shark for this because she had the best contacts of our own dogs. Most of the people we train regularly have dogs with contacts which are of a similar standard, some are even faster!   You can mail Jo if you would like her to present one of her contact training seminar / workshops or provide more personal training for you. And don’t forget the contact training notes on this web site if you want a quick overview and some hints and tips.