Contacts!!

During my training with Lesley, she felt my problem with Smudge missing contacts in the ring was caused by too much reliance on body language. Basically, although I was getting good distance from him, he was still stopping and releasing on physical cues. Which of course makes total sense now that someone has pointed it out to me!! So as soon as I went in the ring, under pressure my body language changed, and ta-da........a contact issue!!

Anyway, since we have come back we have worked really hard on proofing the behaviour more. And so far it seems to be working. BUT (isn't there always a but!) Smudge is now stopping in a 4-off position. We originally trained his contacts using a target in a 2020, then backchained both the dog walk and a frame. Now he is stopping and targeting, but in a 4-off!! He is almost still on the contact (his tail is still on it anyway!). Paul thinks he finds it difficult to stop at speed in a 2020, and to be honest my gut feeling is that he is right, and Smudge is just adopting the most comfortable position for himself. He is getting the contact at speed every time, and waiting for a verbal release. So my question to you blog readers is - any experiences/advice to share on this?!?!?! This started because a few times I could see he had really tried hard to stop, but had been going so fast he overshot. Silly me gave him 10/10 for effort and still rewarded him. So now I think he thinks this is acceptable and it is easier for him. Do I let this be his contact position? Or by reducing his criteria slightly am I heading into murky waters?? My worry is that the 4-off will start to creep forward. How then will I be able to correct him as without the target there, where should he stop? As far as he is concerned 4 feet on the floor is four feet on the floor - even if he has leapt from the top!!

Hmmmm, questions, questions. Good to get it down on paper and it is something I am going to think long and hard about! We have a show this weekend, so it will be interesting to test his ring performance. And I will film it!!