Clean Run - October 2012 - 25

A Word about Eye Contact
Focus on your dog. When walking the course without your dog it is easy to look around to help you navigate around the course. However, when you run with your dog, looking up and breaking eye contact or changing from direct to indirect eye contact may cue your dog to act in a way that is not desirable for the course. Eye contact is a cue your dog uses and if you are looking around to find the next obstacle you may miscue your dog. It is important that you can find your way around the course while continuing to correctly focus on your dog. When you run your dog you should be focusing on him and using direct or indirect eye contact as is appropriate for the course. If during your walkthrough you have looked around you to locate where you want to place your front cross, or looked behind you to see where the next obstacle is, etc., you may not be able to find that location or obstacle and still properly focus on your dog. Eye contact helps a dog know which side we want him on; for example, after exiting a tunnel. When I execute a blind cross I break that eye contact. So it is reasonable to expect my dog to question which side he should be on if I am not using eye contact correctly. When my dogs are weaving one of my proofing exercises is to start to look around when my dog is close to the end of the poles, for example poles eight through ten. Very often this will cause a novice dog to pop out of the weave poles. With the change in eye contact the dog can perceive that it is time to move on because you now have indirect eye contact with the dog and direct eye contact toward the next obstacle. To be better able to find your way around a course without looking around, walk an exercise and during the first couple of walkthroughs stop and locate the place you want to run to. Move to that location rehearsing either direct or indirect eye contact, whichever is appropriate for your dog during that part of the exercise. Repeat this a couple of times. Next drop something small (I use a Chapstick) on the ground; without looking where you are going first, you should be able to execute your handling maneuver and be within inches of your marker. Your walkthrough should be a perfect dress rehearsal, which will contribute to a perfect performance. D

Rachel Sanders has competed in agility since 1994, and with her Border Collie, Whist, and JRT, Trump, has won three USDAA Grand Prix of Dog Agility Championships and a Steeplechase Championship. Rachel and her BC Fable represented the U.S. at the 2008 IFCS World Championships in Belgium where they earned a silver medal. In addition to teaching across North America at seminars and camps, she teaches full time at her agility center in Atascadero, California. Contact her at www.fastforwarddogsports.com.

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Clean Run - October 2012

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