Turns on the Move All three youngsters have started some flat work: turns at my side and turns on the move. With a dog as big as Shade it's important to build this skill slowly and carefully so I reward with food until he gets the hang of it. With Dexi and Darcey, who are far more physically able at this stage, it's important that speed and fun is associated right from the beginning so this work is done with a toy. Shady is learning to turn all of himself at my side. If you look at the position of his legs, you'll see how easy it is for accidents to happen. Make sure your dog is relatively mature with decent muscle development before trying turns like these. I waited until Shady had control of his legs again after his recent growth spurt before doing these. Now we add speed! Running Contacts There are so many methods for teaching running contacts that it really isn't possible to cover them all in part of an article. My strong advice is to have a go! It's a huge amount of fun if you have the training time, and if you change your mind it's easy to teach a stop instead. As a byproduct you'll have a dog that's fast on the contact equipment! D I started agility training and competition in the late 1980's and around about that time I started clicker training. I've competed in both working trials and obedience. I still think agility is the best of all sports for both dogs and handlers and clicker training the best way to teach it. I thoroughly enjoy training my dogs and teaching others. Across the years I've been privileged to teach all over the world, from Australia to Japan, all across North America and Europe. I've worked with many talented handlers and trainers and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. I remain a positive trainer; reward builds behavior so much faster and better than any other method. If the solution to a problem is going to upset my dog, it clearly isn't the right solution. Contact me via my website: www.agility-training.co.uk, or via my Facebook page: Jo's agility-training.co.uk. 18 Clean Run | July 17http://www.agility-training.co.uk http://www.agility-training.co.uk