Contact performance
The agility A-frame has two contact zones on either end of the obstacle. The dog is required to touch these contact zones as they come down (and in many organizations also when going up – a notable exception is for example UKI agility, where up contacts are not judged).
If you are teaching this obstacle at home, make sure that your dog touches the down contact. It is really dangerous if a dog flies off the A-frame from higher up – he could seriously get hurt if he crashes down without touching the yellow zone.
There are several ways to work on great contact performance on this obstacle.
You could teach your dog a 2on2off – a behavior in which he stops at the end of the obstacle with two feet in the yellow contact zone and two feet on the ground. Especially for owners who do agility for the first time this can be a bit tricky.
An easier option is to scatter some treats on the ground behind the A-frame. This way, the dog will look down and sniff for treats and in the process slow down enough to touch the contact zone and not get hurt.
Some owners also teach so-called “running contact” during which the dog learns to hit the contact zone even at full-speed. This can be difficult to train for large dogs. Small dogs usually automatically hit the yellow zone without much training involved.