FAQ on Running Contacts on LoLaBuLand website covers a lot on how to teach it and answers some most frequent questions. But as I improved the method some by then, definitely read questions&answers here too and/or, even better, join running contacts long distance class.
You’re welcome to post your videos here, tell how long it took you to get to full height, problems you encountered and of course: how much fun it is to train them:). Videos are very welcome, it still brings a smile to my face when I see a beautiful running contact, it’s something addictive about it. It is on times frustrating, like for example when your puppy thinks jumping off the flat plank is a must - but it all makes the end result even sweeter. So… Happy training, everybody!
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Hi Silvia! I figured I would post this now before all your new classes start and you have SO much to review. I thought you would enjoy seeing Spur’s running into nothing. We haven’t trained it in months and my yard just tried up so I thought I would see how it was holding up. We only did a few reps, but he was 100%!! It has been totally fine at trials, but we have only seen it a couple of times. I also think it’s cute how excited he was to be training his DW again and just takes off to wrap that jump all by himself!!
His DW sure has helped him become more confident!!!
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Wow, those were sure beautiful!!! And he just seems faster&faster!
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Hi Silvia
Just wanted to post my latest run of Liryk, and to just say THANKYOU sooooo much for all your help, I’m feeling alot more confident going into the ring these days, and I’m so proud of how far we’ve come. We had a high hit on the d/w but so stunned she got it as she was running into nothing
Thanks again!!!
Megan and Liryk 0 likes-
GREAT job!!! Thanks for an update, always fun to see Liryk!
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WOW!! Megan, Liryk looks awesome!!!
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Hi Silvia,
I am training my border collie Fame on your running contacts and I really love doing them. We are now on a full high DW and she has beautiful hits if I put a straight tunnel at the end and throw the ball very early (as soon as she is on the straight piece of the DW). Yesterday I tried to put a jump at the end of the DW and either she jumped of or had really high hits (I didn´t throw the ball as early as usual) What would you recommand me? Practise more often with just a jump and throw the ball earlier, or first continue with a tunnel and start throwing the ball later and later with maybe a jump after the tunnel? We also have a bit of a problem with her hits, if we for excample run towards a fence, which is quite near. Her contacts aren´t as nice as normal because I of course can´t throw the ball ahead, because otherwise it is over the fence
When would you suggest me to start with the turns? As soon as Fame is able to hit the contacts every time, no matter if the next obstical is a tunnel or a jump and I can throw the ball, as soon as she is of the DW? Would you start practising the turns with a tunnel put a bit beside her normal line after the DW?
In the first part of the video, you can see her hits if I put a tunnel behind the DW and throw the ball earlier (sorry for the bad quality)Thanks in advance for your help.
Greatings from Germany
Simone 0 likes-
Looks good! Definitely a time to fade a tunnel/ball yes, did you try to set DW-jump-tunnel? Would that work? If yes, you can do that for now, then two jumps before a tunnel, then move the tunnel some etc. If the tunnel after a jump doesn’t work, try a static toy after a jump. Or always being in front for now – different things work for different dogs.
I only teach curves by moving a jump some and for that, I would wait until you can use a jump and throw after it. You could start collection turns though as it’s completely separate exercise, with just a down ramp/plank and a pole for her to help her go all the way down.
Nice cik&caps too!
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Hi Silvia,
thank you very much for your fast feedback. And no, I haven´t tried yet, to do DW-jump-tunnel, but I will definitely do. What also could work good for Fame is me beeing infront of her for a while…..I will try all ideas you named and will let you know and than start putting the tunnel more and more back.
Parallel I will start the training for the curves after a plank. Do you use left and right as a word and when do you say it? As soon as your dogs are on the DW or is in the middle early enough for them to react?
I will keep you posted on our success (?)
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Yes, I use left&right and for 5-strided dogs as yours say it about in the middle – sooner only for Bi.
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Hi Silvia,
I have tried to set a jump after the DW and behind the jump the tunnel -- but it didn´t work much better. Her hits are really high, even I only have the jumps on 45 cm. During the training I put the bars away and only let Fame run through the jump into the tunnel and than her hits got nice again. At the end of the video I put the bars on mini hight and she didn´t have that nice contacts again.
Would you recommand me to now try the toy after the jump or continue with practising DW-jump-tunnel with maybe a lower dw? When using the toy after the jump should I put the jump maybe 8 meters behind the dw or nearer (maybe 4 meters)?
Thanks Simone 0 likes-
You can try a toy after and see what works better and go with that. Don’t set the jump too close (4m is too close – something like 6, 7m is better!). If you decide to continue with jump-tunnel, put the bars on the floor first, then on 10cm, 15cm etc.
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Hi Silvia,
the day after I took the video above I realised, that I did a mistake before. I didn´t do DW-jump-tunnel, but tunnel-DW-jump-tunnel. So after I realised, I really did DW-jump-tunnel and startet right before the DW and put the jump very low without a tunnel behind – and it worked much much better. So I will continue with that version and than lift the bars very gradually and have more distance between Fame and the DW. I think with that version we will manage to get good hits with a jump after the DW…….
Thanks for your help.Simone
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Hello!
Once we had a nice wide and fairly thin board I quit getting the leaps/skips/etc from Tess. Thank you so much for your advice. Now we’re up to about 10 inches from an easy distance (easily allows for decent and deep hits). My question would be that although I’m getting running 99% of the time, and my girls are running very fast, I’m not seeing as much leg seperation from them that I used to get.
Do you think it would be wise to lower the board flat again, and only jackpot really nice leg seperation, or should I continue adding height and jackpotting deep hits (so long as they remain runs) and that the seperation will come with time? Occasionally I get really nice seperation, but a higher hit and so I don’t want to jackpot that. That’ the reason I would lower the board flat again if I start jackpotting seperation instead of deep hits.
Thanks!
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Try different starting position and accept high hit with good hind feet separation for now – and then try to select for lower ones.
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Thank you so much! That seems to be working much better for Tess.
One thing I noticed with my other girl, Soph, is that her speed when running in general has slowed down- not just with RC training but even when fetching her favorite treats/toys or chasing the other dogs or myself to get a reward. It seems like her enthusiasm is just wearing thin like maybe with all the running games/training we’ve been doing she’s starting to get tired of it (which is very unlike her, but we’ve also started taking daily long walks like you suggest for fitness so maybe she’s just tired in general). I’ve been training with her when she’s excited & hungry and only using special toys/treats for motivation so I don’t think it’s a lack of value in the reward.
But I have found that if I send Soph through a tunnel or over a jump before turning back to run her mini dogwalk that she is MUCH faster/happier then if I simply start her on the middle plank or on a straight approach. This seems to be working great and is getting her to run fast again, but I am assuming that this will give her too much inconsistency on the set starting distance away from the planks that sets her up to hit the end of the plank nicely each time (we haven’t gotten to the point where she’s learned to seek out hitting deeply quite yet). Do you have any suggestions on how to still get a set start position even with her running through a tunnel or turning back after a jump? Or do you think that when she comes out of the tunnel/finishes her turn after the jump that that will act as a consistent enough starting point (I assume not do to the variability in stride, tightness of turn, etc)?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Soph is usually a very easily motivated girl, so it’s very odd to me that she seems to be getting bored or loosing her enthusiasm (unless she’s just plain tired from the new exercise as her stamina has never been that great). So I’m glad that I’ve discovered how excited she gets from this, but if you think that this will cause her starting distances to be too inconsistent for the point that we’re at in training then I’d be glad to know that too.
Thanks!
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Tunnel at particular spot is consistent enough starting spot. I would give her a break first though, maybe she is sore or not feeling well, it’s unusual their motivation goes down – it always goes up through the process.
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Thank you and yes, I agree. I’ve read over and over again how their motivation rises throughout this training so it just struck me as odd. Between the new exercise and the rise in temperature last week I think it just proved to be wearing on her. Other than this morning she’s had several days off now, but I think I’ll give it another several days and then see what happens. I took her out this morning since it was cool and lightly wet weather and that’s when I discovered her excitment over taking the tunnel first.
Thank you so much
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Hi Silvia!
I would be very happy if you have time to look at our running contacts video. We have just removed the extra plank (a week or two ago). When starting with teaching RC, Brie always gave me hind feet hits (really well separated) and have been doing so untill we raised the plank really high and then removed it -- since then she’s getting almost all hits with front feet. No change in other movement I think, she’s still running with very nice hind feet separation (now often after the DW). She’s still getting hind feet hits every now and then too, though, but not in a majority (like before).
I am wondering if is it Ok to continue rewarding that (she hardly ever misses to hit the zone, but has now switched more to front feet hitting), or should I somehow go back in process of teaching?
and here is one of previous stages with extra plank:
Thank you so much in advance!
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Well, if you look at the real DW contact (below the plank) in the second video, she is hitting with FF already then
The additional plank prolongs the DW and changes their striding, so it’s actually normal she is hitting with FF now as you practised that with that plank. But it’s perfectly o.k., it’s actually safer as this DW is pretty short, so she will probably hit higher and therefore with rear feet on longer DWs – you might want to try the DW in Sneberje, that one is really long.
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I noticed that she would hit it with front feet under the extra plank already but I thought she might learn to adjust her strides with really slow rising of the plank, but she somehow immediatelly chosen to switch it, and is still getting all hits so I just kept rewarding of course.. I just wanted to check if front feet hits are also just as ok as hind feet, which was the thing I have always been jackpotting.
I’m glad to hear she’s doing ok!Ivana said we will go to a different place soon to try out her contacts in different environment. I think she mentioned Krim. I’m so thrilled to see what will happen. Running contacts are really fun! We both love it.
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Yes, FF are fine, but she might switch to RF anyway as it’s more comfortable – most dogs who started off with FF (Bi, Gyp etc.) switched to RF on their own. Try as many different DWs as possible yes, but Krim one is pretty short too. Mine and the one in Sneberje are longer and usually the hardest for RC. When do you start competing?
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Oh still a lot of time before her first competition, she’s 11 months old now. She will turn 15 months exactly at your agility camp in August!
soooo looking forward to it!
And I’m also hoping for your handling classes, if(when) you decide to open it at your center? 0 likes-
Oh, still plenty of time then. Not sure about those classes just yet, I have like a permanent lack of time huh…
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Yep, we’re not in a hurry. Neither would be even if competitions started next week
Aw, totally understand you about time. It would still be wonderful to visit you again soon. I will still keep fingers crossed that you might decide to fit those classes in.
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Hi Silvia.
Here are two videos of Zushi’s first official competition
Gitte and Zushi
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That was great! Many clean runs for a first trial and GREAT contacts! I’m sure we see you at the Worlds soon!
Great job!
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Yep but we have had a GREAT Teacher
I haven’t joined other classes than yours. Puppy Class, Agility Foundation and Running Contacts
Thank you very much
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I think you must have done something right too!
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Here are two video of Mias running dogwalk in competitions! We did not get any fault yet and I am really enjoying it!!! Thank you so much!!!
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Great job!!! Really cool contacts, great wraps and great handling! Way to go!
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Hey Silvia! I’ve been working with both my girls on your RCs and I personally think we’re making great progress! My girls are racing fast and have good seperation and it’s gotten to the point where I do not even need to be real cautious about a consistent starting distance as they will adjust to make up for it. Both girls seem to have a nice understanding of what I’m asking for and my one girl is finally starting to build some amazing enthusiasm whereas before, when she was confused about the criteria, her drive was beginning to lack. I’m sure we still have a long way to go but I am really happy with the progress we’re making currently. I LOVE seeing them adjust/extend their stride so that they hit nicely
However, I also like to constantly be researching and seeing what others are doing with RCs. On almost all of the online forums, blogs, etc that are discussing different methods of RC training I keep seeing people say that your method is simply about running vs jumping/leaping and just the dogs natural stride- no mention of running deep or adjusting. It is starting to annoy me with how so many people are judging this method without seeming to even have an accurate understanding of it. I keep reading that long-strided dogs can’t possibly consistently hit the contacts with this method because their “natural” stride will carry them right over the contact.
Does it sound like these people I am writing about just do not fully understand the method? Or have I come up with some strange idea somewhere along the way that it isn’t about the dogs natural stride but more so about the dog learning to adjust so that it can come down deeply into the contact no matter where it’s striding would have “naturally” taken it?
Thanks!
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Well, didn’t you see the video I posted of Bi showing 3, 4 and 5 stride pattern and hitting with all different patterns? I guess that answers your question, no? I posted many other videos of dogs doing DW in 3 steps, so I feel absolutely no need to fight with those thinking it’s not possible with long-striding dogs
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Okay thanks!
I didn’t think I had an inaccurate idea of what this method is about but with SOOO many people giving the same faulty opinion it had me wondering if I was the one who didn’t understand correctly….And yes, I’ve watched many of your RC videos and all are amazing! Okay, so I will just start ignoring those inaccurate statements and just keep on working with my girls on your wonderful method
Thank you!
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