Set your dog up for success and rewards! Walk the dog all the way down the off-ramp. Do not allow him to leave the obstacle early. That's setting your dog up to fail by missing a contact. Start out with the behavior you want.

Next, follow with the hind feet. Dogwalks are narrower planks than the other contact obstacles, and a paw off the side can mean a dog overboard. Teach your dog about foot placement on solid ground using a ladder or cavaletti set. If your dog goes slowly at first, that's okay. Speed will come with confidence, which comes with experience. Phase out the spotter, and every time your dog goes over the obstacle, get on a different side so your dog doesn't become handler position dependent. Change ends as well, so the dog doesn't get used to one direction or the other. Slowly step further and further away from the obstacle. Do keep alongside to encourage your dog. If your dog falls off or begins to show fear on the dogwalk, go back a step, and work your way back up a bit more slowly. Your dog is doing what comes naturally to cats! Practice, practice, practice! Your dog may need more interaction with the dogwalk than just in class, so consider purchasing one of your own or ask to come early to class or stay late.

Then, it's time to step it up!When your dog is going over the dogwalk without mishap and with confidence, encourage your dog to move faster by running alongside the dogwalk and calling encouragingly to them. Give lots and lots of treats for the faster times, and lower values for slower times. Your dog will learn that the faster they go, the better their rewards! Also, raise the dogwalk to the full height at this stage. If your dog shows hesitancy towards the higher dogwalk, go back a few steps and work back up to the confident, happy trot over the dogwalk.

Now that your dog is enjoying their dogwalk experience, it's time to start working on making certain they touch the yellow contact zone at the end of the dogwalk. There are several popular methods to ensure contact and discourage fly-offs:

• Using a Contact Zoner
  This works well for ensuring an all-the-way-down fast contact, since the contact zoner prevents your dog from jumping off. Eventually you'll phase this out, and only occasionally use it as a reminder of the desired behavior. If your dog never learns that jumping off is a possibility, that's a good thing!



• Two On, Two Off
  Also known as 2o2o, this method has your dog half-sit at the end of the plank and wait to be released. For larger dogs, this can present some health issues as a lot of stress is placed on their shoulders. This method can also add a second to your course time as you have to release your dog. However, this method usually leads to very solid contact performances, and is used widely.



• Running Contact
  Anyone who trains these loves these, because they save course time and your dog is not slowed down nor is there stress placed on their joints. The downside is, the running contact very quickly becomes the 'flying' contact as your dog leaps from the dogwalk before they've touched the yellow zone, which will result in a faulted run.