That is the problem. Tika's times aren't superfast...

2007-08-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

That is the problem. Tika's times aren't superfast to begin with, either, mostly because she doesn't have the world's fastest contacts. So do I really want to slow her down? No--that's why I was glad of an idea of *something* that she had to run through, rather than a specific point that she had to hit. I dunno whether this is going to work. I can't decide whether I should be mucking with it now or wait until after the nationals. Argh.

-ellen

I feel your pain. I am retraining the rottie's con...

2007-08-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

I feel your pain. I am retraining the rottie's contacts. I bought the beeping contact trainer and started teaching her to hit the pad, away from the dog walk. Her percent for hitting the contact improved but never reached 100%--she doesn't get it. And most crucially, she absolutely has to slow down to hit it because her stride is huge. Bottom line, dogs without up issues are going to run faster if I make her hit the ups consistently. We have shows coming up, and she just finished her MACH, so I transitioned her to the dog walk, even though she wasn't ready. And she didn't get it at first, but eventually did. I took away the contact trainer today and she hit it 5/6 times, basically stopping 2o2o on the UP and kind of waiting for a release to run the rest of the dog walk. So basically, we have a half-trained up contact that is not 100% and would be called a refusal by some judges. We have a 3 day trial this weekend, I plan to walk her off if she flies over the up, but if she hits it, we will complete it. The up contact rule is the MOST BOGUS RULE EVER.

Comments on Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Retraining Tika's Dogwalk (continued)

That is the problem. Tika's times aren't superfast...

I feel your pain. I am retraining the rottie's con...