For more on running contacts, it's best to join running contacts class or get a Running Contacts DVD. This page is meant for those who just have a quick question or want to show their finished product - you are very welcome to do so, 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 as well... - but it all makes the end result even sweeter. So... Happy training, everybody!
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 Silvia Trkman is known for bringing every dog, from her first dog on, to the very top of the sport. Her dogs are known for great speed, tight turns, running contacts and long and injury-free careers. Silvia is in agility since 1992 and is– 3x World Champion (with two different dogs)
– 5x European Open winner, with 4 different dogs (Lo, La, Bu, Le)!!!
– National Championships podium and World Team member with every dog she’s ever had – National Champion for 22-times (with 5 different dogs of 3 different breeds) – World Team member for 19-times (mostly with at least two dogs at the time – sometimes four 🙂 ) |
I’ve started training running contacts with my puppy (8 1/2 mos old) and is doing quite well, or so I thought. The board is about 20 inches high (51 cm). We have been adding in a tunnel and turns afterward. As long as the turn isn’t too sharp she runs through fine to the bottom of the board. But if she knows she’s going to turn she’ll come off the board, either just before the yellow or in the upper third of it. If I put a small pole, just high enough for her to see above the plank (only about a couple of cm tall) about 15 to 20 cm from the end, she’ll stay on to the bottom of the board and collect her stride beautifully to turn sharp once she exits. This won’t happen if I front cross at the end, do a push, or do a shoulder pull to get her to turn at the bottom. If happens if I have some lateral distance and she’s reading a turn.
Is there any problem with continuing this? I’ve tried putting the pole up running her through, then taking it down, but it doesn’t work more than once. Will she eventually stop as there is more angle to the ramp? I can’t help but think that one reason she does it is because the ramp is low (and she knows she’s turning). We’ve tried starting over with the plank on the ground but I’m not sure whether that is doing the trick. I hate to give up on this but don’t want to frustrate her either.
I noticed in your video of doing turns after a dogwalk, you have a small pole at the end of the ramp.
I wouldn’t go down just because of turns, it sounds good enough to me to keep working like that. You can try to gradually switch to a thinner, less visible pole and then slowly fade it when she has better understanding of the importance of going all the way down no matter what. How long are you training it? Any videos?
I’ve been working with my Tervuren with running contacts since last fall and just this week we started on the real dog walk! She didn’t have the best hit rate at first but now she is almost 100%. I suppose this isn’t so much asking for advice as just a thank you for your excellent running contact method. =D
That’s sometimes nice to read too:). Now we need to see the video!
Toggle had a bad mishap on the seesaw which set her back a bit in her dog walk progress, but now we’re back on track, and she’s going full speed ahead. On Sunday, however, she jumped twice on the DW, but not at the end, in fact both times she had a lovely contact at the bottom. I did catch one on video --
It’s the second run, also put it in slow motion at the end of the video. I rewarded the DW because she hit it beautifully, am my feeling is that I shouldn’t worry about her jumping during the DW as long as she’s not jumping at the end, but I just want to make sure I’m on the right track!
Right, jumping elsewhere is allowed:). It actually looks like she does it in order to come all the way down on a contact. Good girl!
Vito started work on running contacts when he was 8 months, almost 1 yr ago and we took 4 months to get up to full height. We didn’t have access to a full DW so just raised a 12ft board. Everything went lovely, even when we transferred it to a real DW. We only have access to a DW once a week but I was able to start doing small sequences with his ball maybe 1 or 2 jumps after the DW. But a few months ago Vito started jumping. Not all the time, and he would usually still be in the yellow, but he was jumping. I am worried that I won’t be able to fix this when I am only able to get on a DW once a week. An instructor recommended I go back to putting out his ball and moving it way in, about 8-10ft out instead of the 15-20ft I had been doing. It seems to have helped a ton (only have done it for 2 sessions so far) but I am worried about the slight slowing down he does to collect himself for the ball. Since your method relies on the dog running all the way through the contact, will this improvement due to the slight collection transfer at all when I start putting the ball out? I hope to put the ball farther away as fast I can, but without regular access to a DW it will take longer.
Do you have any other suggestions?
Here is the video from the 3 trials we did earlier this week:
And here is a small compilation of the original training on the board we did:
Thank you!!!
Hm, I think your criteria was maybe too strict and he finds it too difficult to meet now… Some of the tries you called jumping are nice hind-feet contacts in my eyes… Do you have a video of how he does on a real dog-walk without a ball so close? Also, did you try what happens if you throw a ball in advance (when he is still on a dog-walk)? I would prefer that over a ball set that close after the contact.
Re watching the video I see what you mean about his hind feet being separated. Thank you! Today I was able to get on the dog walk and tried 3 trials with the ball being out at the normal far distance, and 3 trials where I attempted to throw the ball. I absolutely sucked at throwing the ball, couldn’t get the timing right but also wasn’t quite sure at what point I should have been trying to throw it.
It seems like his hind feet were separated on all but one trial yet he is extremely high up on the board. Am I looking at it wrong?
And if I do need to go back several steps in training, is it ok that I start him just on the down ramp again? My instructor, who is not too familiar with your method, thinks that it wouldn’t be of much help because the striding will be completely different once he is going across the full dog walk again.
I meant throwing a ball well in advance, he should see it before he is even on a down ramp, so you need to throw it before the middle. The idea is to prolong his strides a little, just enough for him to get deeper on a contact. Another idea to get the same affect would be to put tunnels on both sides. Some more work on just the down ramp and then putting him further and further back could help too.
I just wanted to update that while I still can’t get the timing right on throwing it, we are doing much better with our contacts. I am able to have the ball being placed after a jump again and are now working on turns. Sometimes he seems to do a jump on the middle plank now, but his contacts are usually perfect. Perhaps he is doing it, as you suggested Toggle might be, to fix his stride and allows him to come all the way down.
Hello,
I understand that you like to use flat and wide boards when 1st introducing a new dog to your method. However, how long do you suggest the flat/wide boards be in length ?
Regards,
Britney
My Border Collie is going through one of his fear periods. After seeing that his growth plates had clsoed, I decided it was time to start backchaining the dogwalk. He used to be fearless when it came to heights, but now he is deathly afraid of them. He will not stay on the plank anymore, and will not run to a target. Should I go back to working on a board?
He has no problems with the Aframe, and his Aframe is almost full height. He also runs nicely on the 8 ft dogwalk that we have, but on the competition sized 12 ft dogwalk, he is afaid.
I would for sure start with the board again and see if he is o.k. with it. It’s usually way less scary for the dog. If he is o.k. with the board, try rewarding any interaction with a dog-walk and see if you can shape him to climb it on his own. It’s perfectly o.k. if he decides to jump off at any point. It could be that putting him in the middle of the dog-walk is making it worse, it is somewhat scary for many dogs, so let it be on his terms, at his speed and comfort level. Don’t worry about contacts, speed or whatever, just give him time to feel comfortable about it, contacts will get better and better with more confidence.
Thank you. I think that shaping will help him out a lot. I let him jump off, but I don’t think he’s figured out that it’s optional yet, which could be making his fear worse.
Also, do you think that maybe feeding his meals in the yellow up contact would help him realize that dogwalk = reward?
A quick question for you Silvia!
My young dog Lynn is read to start trialing. I have had her on many dogwalks, different surfaces etc. However, I am wondering what you do with a young dog if they jump the contacts at trials. Do you not worry about it and just continue on, figuring confidence and experience will work things out?
Exactly. If she was on different dog-walks already and didn’t have a problem with it, I think she will do fine anyway. If not, I wouldn’t worry, wouldn’t mark it, but just keep going, running contacts always get better with experience. Good luck at the trial!
Hi!
I just wonder how you train the a-frame? like the dog-walk, but with a wider plank? or does the dogs figure that out for them selves?
I don’t train A-frame, you get that one for free:). After you’re finished with the dog-walk, you can start using the A-frame. You can put it a little lower first, but should progress to final height in the same session and NOT insist on coming all the way down. Basically, you don’t want a dog to transfer the behaviour too well as it’s physically too hard on a dog to come as low on the A-frame as he should on the dog-walk. That’s why I don’t really train A-frame, I just use it and yes, after all the work on a dog-walk, A-frame should be o.k. if you just leave it alone, I even never reward it, just run. Bu and Bi NEVER miss it, my only dog who will sometimes miss it is La, exactly because I trained her to come too low.
This is more about other contact methods than running contacts, but since this is the major contacts article, I decided to put the question here:
Do you think that it would be feasible to train dog to do 2-on-2-off without any release cue?
In practice the goal would be to teach the dog that once (s)he is on 2-on-2-off position at the end of contact, (s)he would be allowed to move on (preferably with as much speed as possible).
I guess some dogs are o.k. with this, but I would guess most dogs will start to cheat. I used to do see-saw as “wait until it bangs and then leave”, but most dogs were pushing the limits until starting to leave too early if not controlled, so I believe a release cue is in fact very important if you want a really independent performance.
Question,
How can i prevent my dog from jumping over the contact when i’m running next to him. His contacts are very good when i’m far im front of the dogwalk showing his toy or when i’m far behind and his toy is far in front of the dogwalk. When i throw the toy he’s also jumping. It seem as if his focus is not always forward.
Im training on full height already.
Seems like you didn’t do enough of it when on a plank… So I would just go back to the plank and leave a stationary toy right behind the first jump after the plank so that he starts to search for a jump, not a toy. A jump should make him focus forward, not the toy. Then switch to throwing a toy after the jump -- to start with, you can have two toys, one stationary and another one flying when he is running to the stationary toy. You can also use a tunnel instead of a jump, but only throw after the next obstacle until his forward focus is better, so that he is not turning into you for a reward.