Clean Run - October 2019 - 11

Part 4

Any Dog Can Have Awesome Contacts from a Distance
By Stacy Winkler, photos by author
By now, hopefully, you have worked through the training
steps described in the first three articles of this series and
are ready to move on to the work described here. If not,
get yourself a copy of the July, August, and September
issues and get on your way to contact brilliance!
My best advice while doing the proofing in article two and
three is to be brave. Sounds silly, I know, but I find one of
the biggest impediments to trainers improving their dogs'
skills is the fear of failure. Often, either consciously or
subconsciously, trainers protect their dogs from making a
mistake. A frequent tip I give to students is to video their
sessions so that they can keep themselves on track. Yes,
it's a pain in the butt, but it works!
I can't tell you how many times I repeatedly will tell a
student to work a behavior on the contact from 10ft.
away and, although they set out to do it, they end up 1ft.
away rather than 10ft. The kicker is that if I don't point
it out to the student, they would never have known they
didn't accomplish their goal. In their mind, they were
10ft. away. Unbelievable? Maybe, but it's true. I see it all
the time. So, beware, it can happen to you. It seems to
be instinctual to protect the dog from failure, but if you
do, you will never expand your dog's understanding.
One of my favorite sayings is, "Helping does not help, it
prevents learning."
If you can throw your toy while your dog is running over
the contact and have the dog hold his end behavior, and
you can be at least 15ft. lateral to the dog, you can begin working on this month's drills. Do not try these drills
without those skills.

Exercise 1
Figure 1 shows the setup for exercise 1 and 2. If you
don't have enough space or jumps, however, you can
set up half of the course at a time.
The first exercise is shown in Figure 2. You are only going to do #1-#3 initially. Lead out with the dog on your
right. You want to create momentum over the A-frame so
October 19 | Clean Run

don't lead out very far. The length of the lead-out should
be determined by your foot speed and your dog's confidence level. Run to the position where you see the green
handler in the diagram. When your dog stops and you
have his focus on #3, release him to take the obstacle.
Continue to support the dog's line as shown. When you
see that your dog is committed to #3, start to move to
your handling position for #5 while rewarding your dog
with a thrown toy as he heads to #3. This is one of the
most valuable rewards you can give your dog. You are
telling him, "When I set a line for you, you are to carry out
on that line until I give you a new cue: physical or verbal."
Next have the dog do #1-#4, this time rewarding the dog
for carrying out to #4 as you run to your position at #5.
Finally, run the whole drill without stopping.
Jumps #3 and #4 are what I call my "money jumps." They
are the keys to this sequence. That is why rewarding my
dog's understanding is so important. I can't handle at a
distance if I have to babysit my jumps. If my dog understands to carry out on the line I set to #3 and #4, it gives
me a ton of flexibility in my handling. I can set a line and
take the shortest path possible to my next handling position. Always remember, however, that you must keep your
eyes on your dog and maintain your connection as you
set a line and run to your next position.

Exercise 2
You are going to work the same skills on a slightly different setup, as shown in Figure 3. Start with doing just
#1-#3. Choose the distance of your lead-out to help
create power into end behavior. Once your dog stops in
end position on the A-frame and you are at or near the
position of the green handler, send him forward to #3,
supporting his line as much as needed. Once you have
intent to #3, start moving behind #5 while throwing your
toy forward to reward #3.
Next, do #1-#4, this time rewarding at #4, and then run
the whole drill without stopping.
11

Clean Run - October 2019

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