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!
 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 🙂 ) |
Here is video of Toggle, Pyr Shep, working on a running dog walk last week --
outdoors:
indoors:
She turned ten months old this week. She has had 21 weeks of dog walk training, we work two or three times a week, depending on the week. So far she’s had a total of 57 lessons on the dog walk, each lesson lasts from 2 -- 7 minutes.
For the first four weeks I just used on board of the dog walk flat on the
ground, then I started raising it up.
I started her on a full length dog walk after ten weeks on a single board.
Starting with the dog walk at 24 inches, I raised it over the course of several
weeks, and she started doing full height dog walks a little over three weeks
ago.
She still has a long way to go with it, we’ve just started to introduce turns, I still have a target 15 -- 20 feet from the end. This week, for the first time, I ran a sequence of eight obstacles before the dog walk one time.
I am very happy with the way it is going, although every once in a while, out of the blue, she decides to jump at the end for two or three tries in a row.
I just started experimenting with A-frames with her to see if it was true that this method was ‘buy one, get one free’ and I’m very happy with what I see so far.
Silvia has been terrifically helpful every step of the way with her. Thank you!
Here’s Toggle’s contact training youtube channel --
Pyrshep Daffy z Tylenu Moravia 10months old puppy ( Chocky) doing dog-walk after 2 months
this is first training dog-walk. This is good , but not perfect yet. 🙂
and after 1 month 90cm
this is very beautiful contacts ! :))
Chocky very likes running contact . RC is fun 😛 and fast 😛
Thanks Silvia RC is very very very good method 🙂
my youtube channel-
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/mySportsdogs
Hey,
I want to tell you something about Jay´s running contacts. I started with a plank on a floor und raised it up in 3 month till the normal dogwalk. I trained 3-5 times in a week, but only for 5 -- 10 minutes each training. Jay has a lot of fun and he loves the dogwalk 🙂
We had some problems with fadding the toy, it tooks a long time till he runs with full speed over the dogwalk without a toy at the end.
Here is a video that shows every steps of our training
This is a acutally video of Jay´s running contacts, next week we will have our first competition, I´m so exciting how he will run the dogwalk…
Thank you all for your input, you’re great! About fading that toy… How early in the process did you introduce a toy placed after the jump? I put a toy after two wings (with pole on the floor) very early in the process, for example at first step that this video
shows, I already had a toy on the floor after the jump. As a consequence, a dog soon starts to search for a jump, not a toy (as it’s more visible) and then I never had a problem when a toy was not there, the dog was searching for a jump and by the time she got there, I was already able to throw it, so she saw it before she reached the jump. That’s why I think one should add a jump before the stationary toy as soon as possible, it makes fading a toy much easier.
Good luck at your competition!
Hey,
I think I put too late a jump after the dogwalk, so I had problems with fadding the toy. I began to use the jumps, when he already runs the full dogwalk. Now I know that it was too late. I should use the jump during the process and not so late.
In my first entry you can´t see my videos, so here are the video of the full process
and an actually video
I want to show too, that Jay knows both ways of running a contact. He can run and he can stop at the end. You can see it here at 1:25 min
He learned 2on2off very fast, he knows the differences because of my command that I give him when he is on the top of the dogwalk
I’m very interesting in knowing how you taught 2on/2off and running contact!
Did you work first only on one of them and then introduce the second one, or did you work on them at the same time?
I love this new website, there is so much too learn from each other!
My advice is always to work on both at the same time, BUT 2on2off only on a box/drawer (something not-plank-like at all) until the running is already successfully transfered from a plank to a normal dog-walk. Only then you introduce 2on2off position on a dog-walk as such, backchaining it and of course using a different cue as for RC. Why only then? Because it’s very easy to go from RC to 2on2off and (mostly) very tricky to go from a well trained 2on2off to RC.
Ok thank you a lot for the idea!
I’ll try this on my new pup and will let you know how it goes for us (and surely will post many videos and questions since it will be my first real training contact!)
First I taught him running contacts. When he rans the full dogwalk since 3 or 4 month I started to teach him 2on2off. It was very easy and he learned 2on2off in 2 weeks. But I don´t often use 2on2off, I use it only 2 or 3 times in a month, only to see, if he still know what to do when I want him to stop at the end of the dogwalk. I don´t have any problems with this, because he knows the command for stopping and the command for running. It was really very easy, but like Silvia says, I would do it after the full process of teaching the running contacts and not during the process!
Tani is also a pyrshep in training. We had a lot of problems on a flat plank. Already as a small puppy she would run like shown in the picture. We stayed on a flat plank for quite some time, but once she learned how to run over a flat plank, we were able to proceed very quickly.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have the opportunity to train on a full lowered dogwalk, we only had one plank (the down ramp). Her success ratio and speed improved a LOT when we switched to a normal dogwalk where she has more space to develop speed. She really loves being allowed to just run, without having to stop.
This is a video of her second attempt on a normal dogwalk. Big thanks to Silvia and Polona, both of them always willing to help! Our next step is learning to turn after the dogwalk.
I have been reworking Canon’s DW & AF since we worked with you, Silvia and we are coming on strong with it. We are not finished reworking, but we are getting better. I will hopefully have some good videos from this weekend to link. We have a trial/test this weekend.
I L O V E this site. Joan (Diva’s Mom) and I were talking about coming to work with you in Slovenia!!!!!! We are definitely coming now!!! Let us know how we can help you.
At the US=AKC nationals, the winners all had running contacts of some sort.
Hm, I wouldn’t call all those contacts running, the Sheltie and a BC that runs before Solar are for sure trained by stopping. The reason I mention this is because there is a huge difference between training pure running and releasing early after teaching a stop and I really don’t want to be responsible for the misses of the dogs who are just being released early, but weren’t trained for running -- because those are the ones who miss most often.
And huh, they sure could use a “cap” on that jump before weaves, did you see how terribly far some of the dogs are running before coming back, the Sheltie for example could gain 3 seconds with a good cap! So obviously, cik&caps are useful for AKC courses too:). But well, that’s another topic…
Good luck at the competition and would be cool to see you here in Slovenia, it’s a really beautiful country!
I don’t know the dogs except the 3rd dog, (rat terrier) and the last one, Solar. You are right about the running. That sheltie was way wide on turns and had a stop. I did see that, but was not too sure who they were so did not want to make too much of a comment on them. I thought the recap of the finals was interesting. Someone with true running contacts would be a sure winner. I will post some bits of this weekend. I sure hope we can keep up with you through this post now. We are big fans and love SILVIA TRKMAN & La, Bu, Bi, Lo.
I know that the BC after the rat terrier has RC’s. I don’t know if she used Silvia’s method, though.
Yes, those are running. Those from a BC after her aren’t.
With my pyrshep, we have worked about 4 months with the plank. Then we have started running full dogwalk. At first, we had problems with wet dogwalk or with swinging of dogwalk.
Yes, that’s a common problem, dogs will change their striding when they’re not comfortable with equipment and as a consequence, contacts might get bad. I had this problem with Bu, but it got better with experience. She is still the lowest on our dog-walk or on rubber equipment, though. So yes, I am certainly getting rubber equipment for my Center, everything to make Bu happy:).
Dyk looks great on a video, is it o.k. on all the dog-walks by now?
He´s still so young, we started compete before 2 weeks. So we haven´t tried many dogwalks yet, but at first on every new dogwalk he is really slow and shrinking, but every next try on this dogwalk is better! We have tried only about 4-5 dogwalks, it looks good after one or two tries on this dogwalk :-).
I would like to start mine with your method. What length and width plank is best? I know it needs to be thin so they feel like they are running on flat ground. I have limited space to practise this and I’m not sure whether I can get our agility instructor to try this method and get a plank to use at the club. She seems keen on teaching running contacts but she isn’t aware of your method and you never know how people will embrace things.
Any tips when limited on space? Our back garden is on 3 different levels and the middle level in most realistic but still really small for getting a dog to run. I can’t think of anywhere else to practise it.
There isn’t really one best length and width… It doesn’t matter all that much. I can tell you for my planks and maybe some others can tell about theirs, but my first plank is about 80cm wide, 180cm long and less than 1cm thin. I use it for beginning stages of running fast on the flat plank and put some books under one end for adding a little height, but then switch to my other plank that is a little bit wider as a normal dog-walk, 3m long and 2cm thin. You don’t need lots of space at all, how much space do you have?
I started with a six foot long plank because that’s what fit in my apartment. In other dimensions it was exactly like a dog walk plank (it was actually half of a dog walk plank)
Erm…I’m not sure in measurements. I’ll have to get some, lol….or take a pic of me standing in the area so you get an idea.
I’m hoping I can get my agility instructor to co-operate too so that it will be easier transitioning to the dog-walk and such.
Thanks for the help so far…
Ok, I got a couple of photos of our back garden to show how it is. The top lawn next to the greenhouse is their toileting area so I can’t train on that. The middle level will be best. Do you reckon it is large enough?
Whole garden looking from the bottom first. Wren is there for scale.
Probably yes, if you’re creative enough. Like starting them before the stairs, positioning the plank after the stairs into a diagonal. And then eventually starting on a table that is positioned over trash (at the height of a fence) etc.
Here is the other photos showing the bit of lawn I could train on with sleet and Wren both there for scale.
Just at the other side of the trash bins, there is a little gravel garden with plants…my last two dogs are buried there with a little gravestone. There is a tiny little fence thing between that and the lawn. You can see the little fence bit right at the bottom of the second photo. I’m not sure I could put something there to elevate the plank unless it was long enough to go over the gravel garden. That gravel garden extends up to where Wrens front paws are abouts. The lawn doesn’t come down to the wheelie bins as we call them in the UK.
ST: here is a short video of our starting over on training. This was during the winter when the ground was too muddy to work outside. I had this ramp in my living room and we worked on it from FLAT on the ground up to about 24″. I used a toy or treat about 20′ out from the end of the DW. Now we have a better ramp outside in the back and we are working on running full speed over the ramp. She is doing very well. Here is a short video: