poodle frapping

Question
i have an almost 3 year old standard poodle, well trained, a therapy dog, he seems to have no other problem exept what i've been told is called frapping. he is most prone to frap in his agility class, he takes off suddenly like a streak of lightening and there's nothing i can do, he seems completely unaware of me until he's done. i thought that if i could understand what it is or why he does it, i might be able to avoid this behaviour when we are at trials. it's a truly beautiful thing to see him "frap", it just isn't always apropriate. if you have any information that might be useful to me i would truly appreciate it. many thanks, sylvia

Answer
Hello Sylvia,
I myself have never heard of Frapping before, though now that you mention it, I have seen dogs "frap" before.  
I have talked to other people about this and they don't really have any suggestions.  
About the only thing I can think of is to try to see if there is anything that triggers this, or see if you can see any giveaways that lets you know that he is going to take off.  
Once you see his triggers, do or say something to stop him before he "rockets" away from you.  

Another thing you can do is use a Shark Line on your dog.  Its a thin lightweight wire that is attached to your dog, that he isn't aware he is wearing.  Use it when practicing so that when he goes to take off, he will be suprised by it.  
You might even want to try a Shock collar, but you will want to make sure that you get the kind that either have a warning tone or a mild level of shock because you don't want to scare your dog, just let him know that he can't frap, and that even though he is off-leash, you can still correct him.  
After an agility run, you might take him out and let him run around some to burn off some energy.  Make it a routine, so he will know what to expect and maybe he won't be as apt to Frap.  

Give this a try and I hope it helps you some.  If you have other questions, please feel free to ask.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim