Training Contacts: Old Dog, New Trick

This past week was the eid holiday. I didn’t have any travel plans but spent half days at work instead (got a lot of projects going at the moment and I needed to make some progress on one of them).

I also started a new training project with the dogs. Last fall I obtained a nice, stiff oak plank that is about 10 feet long and about 12 inches wide. Oak plank for dog training, you are thinking, wasn’t that expensive? And perhaps a bit excessive? Not by the standards of this place. Pine planks are nearly impossible to come by. And pieces of wood cut in standard sizes are simply not to be found. I'm not insisting on typical American wood size standard but any kind of standard at all. You can take any ten pieces of wood and they may look similar but when measured you’ll find their dimensions are random. No cheap pine, no standard dimensions. While out with friends in Dammam, I ran across this piece of oak that was more or less the size I wanted; it suited my purposes well so I bought it.

The plank is for training contacts. I of course don’t have any contact equipment for the agility classes and will never have any. I have no place to store the equipment and no way to transport it even if by some trick I magically conjured up a garage for myself (in that case, why stop at a garage? Why not a back yard too?).

But I thought that I could still introduce the basic concepts of contacts to our little agility group with the plank. The progression is to put the plank flat on the ground and teach the dog to keep all four paws on it. Then you teach the dog to run along the plank. Then you teach the dog some sort of contact behavior at the ends. I’m going to stick with a two-on two-off behavior because it is easy for novice handlers to recognize when the dog executes it properly. It is a behavior that can be clearly marked and rewarded since the dog comes to a complete stop with his front paws on the ground and his hind paws still on the plank. Finally, I plan to lean the plank on my table, raised up to 12 inches with the spiffy PVC platform I built for it, to create a low-angle ramp. 

Agility purists might scoff and say, well, running contacts are all the rage now because they shave hundredths of seconds off your course time. And I'd counter that speed is hardly the point since we don't actually have real contact equipment. Some of you might sniff and say, well, this or that method is better than a contact plank. And I'd counter that I'm making do with what I have, which ain't much! In a way, it’s like I've regressed back to the early 1990's when the sport was getting started.

I bought some bright blue and yellow paint. After a primer and one color coat, I added my homemade sand/paint coating to give the plank a grippy feel. It looks super!

It’s been years since I thought about teaching contacts and I’ve never used the plank method. So I decided to spend my eid holiday developing a training protocol that I could use in class. The protocol needs to be flexible to accommodate all the variations of dog and handler that I have to work with in class. But of course it also needs to produce some positive, reliable results.

Since Mimi already understands contacts, she grasped the idea of the plank right away. She’ll be helpful in demonstrating the final product but I needed more of a blank slate to work with.

Azza of course would be the obvious choice to work with if she was a normal dog. Given her overwhelming, paralyzing fear of new things (behavior which is far beyond the pale of normal), it has been quite a struggle just to get her to put one or two paws on the plank. Forget walking along it. She could barely be dragged past it. However, we have been making progress since I installed the flat plank as a permanent part of my living room. After missing most of two meals, she figured out that she had to put a paw on it and keep that paw there or she was going to be pretty hungry! In short, she is not a very good model for normal behaviors that I might encounter during contact training with the plank. Azza is a "special needs" dog.

It turns out that I’m doing most of my exploration of this training problem with Harry. Yes, that’s right. I’m teaching a 14 year old smooth fox terrier a two-on two-off contact behavior from scratch. He’s going deaf, his eyes are cloudy with cataracts, and he’s pretty stiff in the mornings, but he’s definitely up for a new training game, especially if it involves a clicker and treats!

The first task was to teach him that the placement of his feet mattered: four paws on the plank, not three, not two, and dancing over the plank didn’t count either. He picked that up in two training sessions.

The next task was to get him to stay on the plank as he walked/ran up and down it. He’s still a bit fuzzy on this concept but I can tell he’s trying.

At the end of the plank, he usually runs off and turns around to face me for his treat. So I’m starting his training sessions with half a dozen or so “get ready” commands to remind him that sitting by my side is the rewarding place to be. Using plastic targets really helps with this. He runs to the end, sees the target, slams his paws down on it then looks at me for his treat. He still twists his body quite a bit, in the process coming off the plank, so I’m using jump wings on either side of one end to help keep him straight.

I'll continue working with Harry for the next couple of weeks until I am sure I can teach someone else and their dog how to manage the contact trainer. And I'll be sure to tell our little agility group about Harry's contribution to their class!