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 🙂 ) |
Hi Silvia, I raised the board like you suggested (13cm). I’m worried that my criteria “two strides on the board” is making his striding really funny. On the video below is one excerpt of our training. On 3 tries he jumps and on 3 he runs -- but he’s either throwing one paw down prematurely or making really small strides to fit two on the board. What do you think?
Before I started I was afraid I would find training running contacts boring because of the repetition, but now I find it’s difficult to hold myself back so I don’t ask too many reps of Ruby. 🙂
Update: we did a few more reps today, but I was using food instead of toys and his striding is starting to look like on flat plank. So he CAN do it right! I was afraid I was forcing him to do unreasonable things. Now if I can just convince him that he can run the same way for toys, only faster…
Ok, so I’m finding it hard to get footage of Sleet and Wren from the side because there’s not enough room on our back garden to have the camera far enough away from the plank to fit much in the frame.
Anyway, today I was training them and, on the flat plank, sleet kept just striding over the contact area and it was hard to tell if it was just how her stride fell or whether she was jumping. I started her from various points but she still managed to miss it. Anyway, I stuck a brick under one end to give slight angle and started her from close to the plank. She was successful so I jackpotted her. From there on, she was successful most times. I started moving her back from the plank to get a better run off and there were a couple of times she missed so I’d move her closer again but I was able to start moving her back that bit more and her being successful so I guess she might be clicking on that she gets a bit fat “YESS” and extra praise when she hits the end of the plank instead of striding over it. Overall, I was quite pleased so I’ll carry on and see how she progresses…hopefully moving her back from the plank and hope she’ll learn to alter her striding.
Wren also had the brick under the plank and she was also mostly successful. The odd time she wasn’t, she was the time after so perhaps she’s also getting the jist that she only gets a bit fat “Yess” when she hits the end of the plank. She seemed to be changing the position of a front leg in order to hit it…keeping it in a downward position instead of extending it forward with the other as she passes over the contact area…do you reckon thats a sign she’s making a conscious effort to touch it? There was something making her feel a bit on edge today though…not sure what it was…she kept looking round and seemed a little distracted with ears in an anxious position despite being mainly successful and getting lots of reward so I’ll see how she goes tomorrow…there was a helicopter or other aircraft lingering about so maybe she was listening to that…there was a really low police helicopter flying about during skateboard training the other day and she kept stopping to watch it so that might be what it was.
Hello 😉
I am starting with turns, now that I have access to a full size dog walk (2 of them, one full height and one about half meter high, but both full size). Should I start on a full height dogwalk with Ben or on the lower one? Maybe just the down ramp? I was thinking about starting on full hight, just the down ramp, but I wanted to check if that’s ok 🙂 Should I use a pole at the end? I think you mentioned the other day that if you want a good turn, you have to tell the dog the direction at the beginning of the down ramp, right? We’ve been doing some turns already, but we stopped for a while, so I’m starting the whole thing all over again. It’s probably good to go both directions, left&right, from the beginning, I suppose? Tnx, see you at LoLaBu 😉
Nina
Full size is o.k., but I would probably choose the lower one if given a choice 🙂 Start at half of a down ramp and then move him further, working on both directions of course. In case you’re going directly to 180 degrees turns, you’ll probably need a pole yes. If you want to do it gradually (moving a jump around), then you can wait and see if it’s needed. (and in that case, you can do full dog-walk right from the start.)
For most small/medium dogs, beginning of a down ramp is a good spot to tell direction. For long-strided dogs, you need to say it on horizontal ramp already.
See you Friday!
Bad news from me…after a few days of not being well, I went to train them again this evening and they were both really bad…missing the contact area completely most times. I’m thinking our back garden is completely inadequate for this training…I just can’t let them run like they should. Have you ever tried making the contact area feel different to the rest of the plank so the dog associates the feel of that park of the plank with extra reward? I’m wondering whether it would be worth a shot. They are missing the contact no matter what point I start them from…in fact, they are worse with it flat than slightly raised. It often doesn’t look like they are jumping but sometimes they do. If I start them with both front paws on the plank, they are more likely to hit it..Sleet was even being successful moved a couple of feet back from the plank before but was useless today.
There’s just not enough room to even get footage with the camcorder so you can see whats happening. I can’t position the camcorder far enough away from the plank to fit much in.
I might have to give it up as a bad job:(
Hi!
I’ve been training running contacts with my 1,5 years old croatian sheepdog. We started our training in the beginning of summer, but didn’t do it very much because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with him because the beginning was quite tricky.
Here’s now our second time on a raised plank. Yesterday I raised the plank for the first time and got very excited as it went very well.
But today we had some terrible jumps, and I can’t say why.
After the first session it got better, and I think that in the last session we had actually couple of quite nice ones 🙂 Or what would you say?
Our toy was about in the same place all the time (5-6 meters away) and I was sending him standing still. In some of the repetitions i let him run just from the beginning of the plank and few of those were sent a bit more far away (for example those where he runs on side of the plank…).
Looks perfectly o.k. to me. As long as you keep that trend, I wouldn’t worry. 🙂 Keep us posted!
I ran Ruby over 13cm raised board for a while, and decided that it’s time to see how he will do if I raise it. I raised it to 17cm for a few repetitions and then to 22cm, since my 22cm gear is more stable and I wanted to get to it as soon as possible. We only managed to do 5 repetitions on 22cm before we ran out of time, but those repetitions look smacking great!
(That little yellow thing on the board is a tape that marks beginning of contact zone)
Comments, of course, are very welcome. Especially if you don’t agree with me 🙂
Perfect! Go Ruby!
Hi
I finally started training running contacts with Minu. This was her first session and I think she did ok, except first 2 tries are not as good as I wished for. Feel free to comment if you think I am doing something wrong:)
Perfect! 🙂 Even first two are not too bad, she is natural! 🙂
Here is a video of our progression to a full sized dogwalk. Zu-Zu is a Pumi.
We began working on this last spring (when Zu-Zu was 7 months old), April-May and slowly brought the ramp to full height. In the beginning of September, we moved to the full sized dogwalk. Over the past few weeks, she’s settled in nicely. Zu will be one year old next week.
The end of the story is not written, as we are a long way off from competing and she still has much to learn. But right now, she LOVES to do her contacts and seems to be getting better and better as she becomes more confident.
Isn’t it amazing what a dog can learn with a clicker? Running contacts are tons of fun and the perfect thing for those obsessive compulsive people like me to obsess about:-)
Silvia, thanks for sharing your experience.
First of all congrats to your amazing runs on the WC. I´ve been there and watched all of your runs!
Second, I wanted to show you Yous progress, the board (which has been a see-saw before, I disassembled it 😀 ) is higher nowand I think I will move to the dogwalk in a short time.
But just have a look first please!
Looks good.
Hi Silvia.
Congrats at WCs- both dogs looked great, especially Bu who I know has been sensitive (my young dog is the same). I have been training RCs with my young dog and he seemed to be doing well, we started raising the plank and then got lots of jumping. I have gone back to a flat plank so I can really see what’s happening. I have attached a video and he has had one that looked really good, a few jumping and a few which looked good at the time, I rewarded, but looking at the slowmo version seems he runs through nicely with his front feet but strides longer with his back feet which I think should maybe be hitting the bottom of the plank? Can you tell me what you think as I don’t want to progress again with jumping but don’t want to stick on flat plank too long if you think he will sort out back feet? Thank You!
I would probably do two things: raise it a little bit and use a longer plank.
I waited for an answer to this one because it was pretty much the same with mine (As if they were trying to avoid the end of the plank despite being rewarded when they did hit it) but the space I have to work with isn’t big enough and I couldn’t find a longer/wider plank anywhere….
I would start them from different points and they might hit the contact first time but then it was like they altered their striding to miss it after that. I did try raising slightly mind. Seemed to work well first session, especially for Sleet, but then it all went downhill again after that.
Thanks Sylvia.
I have only just got back to read this. I havent got a longer plank but we have had some improvment. This is the latest video I took- I think he is looking better and we have started raising the plank. Do you think these were ok?
Will be on the lookout for a longer plank now!
I’m just not sure this is his full speed… That’s why I would prefer longer plank… Or maybe starting him further? Or out of the tunnel? Or from a restrain? Or maybe to a moving toy instead of stationary toy?
Hi, thanks for the reply. I see what you mean, no he isnt going his full speed. I think he is trying to keep his stride short as the plank doesnt allow for two full strides at full speed for him.
I moved him onto a full length DW plank and his first few attempts were intresting. He worked the same two short strides which took him into the contact area albeit a bit high and then a long stride at the end.
Our next attempts were a lot of jumping at the end of the plank but we did have one or two good hits which I rewarded like crazy, he has more speed on the full plank I think but it is going to take a while for him to figure it out.