Connection doesn’t necessarily mean staring at your dog. In fact you don’t even have to see your dog the whole time. From her point of view, you are connected when you are aware of her location, and she knows which side of you to stay on.

Your dog needs to see the side of your face, showing her which direction to go in. If you show the back of your head you disconnect the two of you, so your dog doesn’t have a clue where to go. She will end up running after you, trying to see your face to reconnect, rather than focusing on her main job - performing the obstacles.

Your dog gets more communication from the direction of your head, than from your arms!

If you try to keep fixed eye contact with your dog, eventually you have to turn your head to see where you are going, and if this puts your dog behind your back, it will break the connection and trigger her to run after you and turn towards you to see where you’re looking. Your dog needs the connection to know which way to go next.

As dogs try to run where you are watching, often it is best to focus on your dog’s running line, beside yours. This way you can see the next obstacle and also maintain connection with your dog.

You'll know what's about to happen next - by looking at your dog's eyes

Dogs always go in the direction that they are looking, so watching your dog’s eyes and seeing where she is looking, usually tells you where she will go next. This may give you time to react and correct your handling if she is about to do something you don’t want.

By looking at the right obstacle, your dog tells you that she is committed to the obstacle. When you see this, you can move forward on the course and give your dog information on which way to go after the next obstacle. If you don’t have a connection with your dog, it’s obviously more difficult to have her commit to the next obstacle which will result in more refusals, among other things.

Make direct eye contact when you want your dog to focus just on you, or to come towards your hand, like for a Lap Turn.

Janita says: There are a few obstacles in agility where we naturally break contact with our dogs - the chute and the tunnel. Other obstacles like contacts and weaves let your dog reconnect with you immediately afterwards, even though she can’t keep the connection during the obstacle.

Another high-risk area for connection loss is in specific handling techniques when your dog needs to pass behind your back - the Jaakko Turn, Reverse Spin, German Turn and Blind Crosses. At the moment where your dog passes behind your back, she can’t see your side profile – just the back of your head - so it is critical to reconnect with her at the point she lands from the jump.

The Front Cross also often causes connection problems. After finishing a Front Cross, you may focus too much on checking where to go next and turn your head away from your dog. He loses the connection, and may refuse or make a side change, due to a lack of information about which side to go on. On the other hand you might sometimes focus too much on looking at your dog when he is behind you. If you can’t properly see where you are headed, you may have problems moving effectively in the right direction.

Often the best way to maintain connection and also move forwards, is to look at the intended line of the dog about three feet alongside and ahead of you. You use your peripheral vision to stay on the right line and stay connected with your dog.

Keeping the connection can be as simple as turning your head in the direction you want the dog to go next. Sometimes I don’t even actually see my dog. I am only aware of where he is and I know he reads me correctly - I create the connection between us just by turning my head in the desired direction.

Direct eye contact is also needed in some situations, like the Lap Turn and Forced Front Cross. For example, in the FFC, right after positioning yourself behind the wing, commit your dog to the far end of the wing so that he understands that you want him to come around the wing. Maintain direct eye contact with your dog to see the exact time of the commitment. If you can’t spot the moment of commitment, you can’t trust that he will come around the wing. This also means that you can’t start moving to the next position early enough. If your dog is not looking at your hand, but at the bar from the direction of approach, he will jump from the wrong direction. When your dog commits to the backside of the jump, you should look in the direction where you want your dog to go, over the bar. If you turn your head away from the dog and look forward, your dog may run past the jump in the direction you are looking.