Perfecting Contact Spots

There are a lot of ways to teach contact spots.  However, these are not the focus of this post.  Instead, I want to share this picture of Keahi.  Not only is she modeling a terrific winter sweater, she is also exhibiting good form on the walk.  Her front two paws have already touched the contact zone, and from looking at her, her handler should be able to tell that she is headed in the right direction to cleanly exit this obstacle.  Here are the two major signs:

• She is lined up parallel with the sides of the dog walk. 
• Her head is focused on the goal-she is looking ahead at where she needs to go.

At this point, her handler should be giving her a positive marker for doing exactly what she needs to be doing! Thanks Ahi for being a great example!

Now, in opposition to the good signs, what are the signs that your dog is about to jump off before properly exiting the obstacle?  First, let me just note that my definition of properly exiting the obstacle is that the dog goes all the way down the ramp without jumping off the side (regardless of how many paws touch the contact spot or not).

• The dog is at an angle to to the sides of the ramp-if he or she kept following that projected path, they would jump off too early.
• The dog is looking off to the side-dogs usually think about what their eyes are seeing.  So, if they are looking off to the side, they most likely are not thinking about going all the way down the walk. 

At this point, the handler should jump in there and help the dog exit the dog walk properly by luring the dog, encouraging him or her to go all the way down, and praising when the dog behaves appropriately.  This way, the dog does not learn the bad behavior of doing an improper exit, is rewarded for doing it correctly, and thus is more likely to do it the right way next time.