Contact Behavior Dilemma
I can't decide what I want to do about Faith's contact behavior. What I have been doing is asking for 2o2o on every down-ramp--the A frame, the dog walk, and the teeter. This has been working fine. My reasoning has been to keep it simple and not ask for a different behavior for different obstacles. Now I am trying to add a nose touch to the ground to her "feet" cue. I've reinforced this in the past but haven't done too much formal training for it until last night. We started out with a target, but it was too frustrating for both of us because, long before we started agility, I taught Faith to target a plastic lid on the ground with her paw on the cue "touch." This is one of her strongest behaviors and although she was consistently touching the target with her nose, she was convinced that a paw slap could only be good. I am simply not skilled enough with my clicker to teach her that I really don't want her paws to be moving at this point. Anyway, I took the target away and shaped a nose touch to the ground. That developed pretty quickly, and then I put her on the stairs in 2o2o and waited for her to offer the nose touch, which she did.
So I think that it won't be too difficult to get the nose touch in there. As of now I have not attached a cue to this. I really don't want to; I am already telling her "feet" after she is an an obstacle (which eventually I would like to fade). So I guess what I want is for "feet" to now (or soon) have two criteria: 2o2o position and nose to the ground.
Now the dilemma: do I want this behavior for the teeter? I am thinking no, because I want Faith's weight to be in her hind end. I am already worried about her coming off the teeter at the end and having it knock into her as that end goes up, so I would rather teach her to concentrate on staying on the obstacle instead of teaching her that it's important to nose around on the ground before her release. If I don't want to have the nose touch for the teeter, I am thinking it would be better to ask for four paws on the contact zone instead of 2o2o. I feel like it will be easier to train if the different behaviors are MORE different. But will I end up with a dog who flies off the teeter? With a cautious dog, do I even need to require a release for the teeter? She's worried about the teeter because it moves, so I think fly-offs are less likely than with the A frame and the dog walk. Maybe I should not require any actual contact behavior for the teeter and just expect her to trot down and off. I don't know what the best thing to do is! Advice is appreciated if anyone has any.
P.S. I hate the teeter.
So I think that it won't be too difficult to get the nose touch in there. As of now I have not attached a cue to this. I really don't want to; I am already telling her "feet" after she is an an obstacle (which eventually I would like to fade). So I guess what I want is for "feet" to now (or soon) have two criteria: 2o2o position and nose to the ground.
Now the dilemma: do I want this behavior for the teeter? I am thinking no, because I want Faith's weight to be in her hind end. I am already worried about her coming off the teeter at the end and having it knock into her as that end goes up, so I would rather teach her to concentrate on staying on the obstacle instead of teaching her that it's important to nose around on the ground before her release. If I don't want to have the nose touch for the teeter, I am thinking it would be better to ask for four paws on the contact zone instead of 2o2o. I feel like it will be easier to train if the different behaviors are MORE different. But will I end up with a dog who flies off the teeter? With a cautious dog, do I even need to require a release for the teeter? She's worried about the teeter because it moves, so I think fly-offs are less likely than with the A frame and the dog walk. Maybe I should not require any actual contact behavior for the teeter and just expect her to trot down and off. I don't know what the best thing to do is! Advice is appreciated if anyone has any.
P.S. I hate the teeter.