Contacts!

Gracie's first contacts class was a lot of fun!  It was so much easier handling Gracie in a bigger building.  There is a separate area for crating reactive dogs so I don't have to walk Gracie close to other dogs she may not like.  We started the class by walking the dogs back and forth over a 1 ft by 8 ft board painted kind of like a teeter with yellow contact zones on each end.  Grace did pretty well, but of course she pays too much attention to me and not enough attention to where her feet are.  Remembering to reward low while she was still on the board did help with that some.  Then there were two square wobble boards, they moved and made a little noise when they hit the ground, that we had to get the dogs to sit, stand, and lay down on.  Gracie was a pro at this, she'd fly onto the boards! 

Next we tried a tricky proprioception (knowing where the feet are) exercise.  There were small square stools, maybe 1 ft by 1ft or less, that the dogs had to get both front feet, both back feet, or all four feet on.  Gracie caught on so quick that I think she may have done this before.  She had all four feet on the stool in no time.

Then it was back to the boards, but this time we put the stools underneath the boards to work with an incline.  This actually made walking on a board seem easier for Gracie.  I would think that the board being off the ground keeps her thinking about her feet a little more so she doesn't fall off.  Again we were rewarding low and starting on the two on two off contact behavior.  Last thing we did was put two inclined boards together so the dogs could go up and down the boards.  We walked them back and forth, then the instructor held the dogs at one end while the handler went to the other end and called them over the boards.  Gracie cheated her second try and hopped off, so no reward for that even though she came when called.  We knew she could stay on the boards so we made her try again and she was successful!  I can't wait to see her on an A-frame and dog walk, but it will be a few classes til we get to that!  Happy agility!