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 🙂 ) |
Wendy, I got mine through some company called “nosetouch” or some such thing. Search nose touch or hit boards on google. They are expensive, but I think one of my better investments because I needed to know when he hit it so I could reward and at first Spur was not running ahead of me confidently enough. Are you in the US? If you are in Europe Silvia knows someone who makes a strike mat that covers the whole contact, I think. Right Silvia? He doesn’t sell to the US, though.
I also had my father in law make it so I could attach both plates to one sound box. Then I only needed the one sound box.
Silvia! -- Spur did over a dozen strange dog walks over the weekend at two seminars and one trial with 100% success and really nice hits!! YAY!! I tossed the ball as far in advance as he could see it at the seminars and he nailed it every time!!! He wasn’t “lightening” fast because strange dog walks always worry him some, but his contacts were perfect.
Amy -- yes I am in the US- that is the one I have too. I have the long one that is meant for the aframe, but if you lie it length wise -- is covers most of the DW yellow area.
here is some video of her just working the touch board. I will post more of her with it attached to a board later.
Hm. Electronic mats on contacts to mark correct behaviour at the right time are o.k. But the way you’re using it is far from my method and will never give you the same results and for sure not the same speed. In my method, placement of feet is the last thing to focus on and running full speed is the first goal. Walking the dog over this little board will not give you that.
Oh, well, that’s how they tell you to train that board, but I didn’t use it that way. I think Spur eventually learned that the beep also meant he was correct, but not always because I never used it on the flat plank work. I am a terrible clicker, so I just used a bridge work “YES!” when he had a good hit on the flat plank work. I used the electronic strike plates once we got to full size DW because I lost some speed after he had a teeter crash and he wasn’t driving ahead enough, so I had to be in front of him where I couldn’t see good hits as well. I still only use the strike plates on the full DW and nothing on the plank work as you can see in the video I posted. I just use my bridge word and play more with him for his good hits. Do what Silvia says and you will be fine! 😀
Silvia -- Here is the second video, with the board on the see saw ( being used as the plank). I wasn’t intending on making that the plank itself, just trying to get her to get used to the touch board under her feet and wanting to stride through it. She jumped it the first few times I put it on the contact about a year ago, then I put it away. She thought she should avoid it.
I wish she were going faster over the plank, she is not a slow dog, I don’t know if it is a remnant of the 2o/2o or the touch board it self.
This is still not my method. When she runs the fastest, you don’t reward, when she walks over, you reward. The other session you posted was better, but I think you still need to throw that beeping plank away (or at least put it in a closet for some weeks, possibly months), forget everything about that yellow part and focus on SPEED and RUNNING. As I stated million times already: feet placement is NOT at all important at those beginning stages. It’s only when you have 100% of FULL speed RUNNING that you start to select for lower hits. -- That is in few weeks, possibly months.
Thanks for the feed back… I have already taken the hit it board away for now, and am really trying to focus on the speed. The main problem I had originally with a stationary target ( food/toy) is that she thought I was proofing her. I then got a big frisbee and turned it upside down like a shallow bowl and put a treat in it, and restrained her and reved her up and said “get it” she got the treat no matter what, but she got more if she hit yellow because I was following her with more. That seemed to break her of the stopping thing.
Yesterday and today, she had two sessions that were much better, she was going faster and only missed one time in each sesion ( but of course no video). I will try to tape a session tomorrow and see if you think it is looking better.
Thank you SO MUCH for your willingness to answer questions about this. I want to get this right for her this time, since I have tried out a couple of other methods previously and then gone back reluctantly to 2o/2o since she didn’t seem to get it. I am committed this time to do the work that it will take to get this to make sense to her. I love your cik cap video and plan on working on that with to this winter.
I see you’re still going for hits… NOT a good idea at this point! Focus on speed and RUNNING, forget about feet placement!!!
Silvia -- I worked 2 sessions to today -- I think she is starting to get it? The question is how am I doing? Please let me know what you think.
Here is another session that I think the height is better, the only problem here is that I tried to use a food bowl out about 15 feet away and she thought that I was proofing her when I tried to get ahead to bait it. She then slowed down and actually offered 2 2o/2o’s (Arrrgghh!) she hasn’t done that in training in weeks -- I have just been pushing her to go on the actual contacts to try to break that behavior in training…since we don’t ever get it in a trial anyway! Some of these I like, but I am still not sure of the best way to set up. She is sending around the chair pretty good. Tonight ( no film -- (too dark) I put her food bowl down and had someone else put a handful of her dinner in it, I restrained her and said “get it”, she ran really nicely doing it that way from this same height and plank. ( no touch board).
Hi Silvia.
In what age do you start your puppy to run the plank on the floor?
With Le, I started when she was 6 months or so. The important thing is that the puppy is over the puppy-movement phase and understands clicker and how to use his legs really well first.
Hello, Silvia!
Writing to you for the first time. We know about your method for a long time, but start to teach it only this year — we have one dog who learning from puppy and one, who is reteach from 2*2.
We have a little problem now. Dog is making perfect RC only when she starts to run from the same point each time. If she is a little bit lower or higher, she starts to jump. What do you think, is it normal if she starts all the time from the same point, where she is making perfect RC? Here is a video below:
Here is our second, reteach dog. Plank is 10 and 15 cm high. Do you have any comment on this video to?
Thank you in advance!
Lidia
I’m sorry, but from the video you posted, I can’t see that pattern… I see the dog starting at the beginning of the plank and mostly run it, but sometimes jump it and then I see a dog starting from further back, sometimes jumping, but mostly running… Looks perfectly normal to me. Just reward the good ones and ignore the bad ones.
Thank you, Silvia! We will try to film another video, if the problem will come back.
And what do you think about reteached dog? Is her RC pretty good on this stage?
Yes, it looks good. I think you can add some height.
Hello, Sylvia.
I’m training my Pappilon, Mouse, here in belgium with the running contacts. It’s working out pretty nice ( I think ) I only have a problem with the A frame. Mouse jumps over the top ( wich i like ! ), but than always lands with his front feed before the contact and his hind feet in it. So not the prettiest running kontakts. But he always has them. I reward them always. Is that a good idea? Do you think he will keep on jumping that top if the A frame is at the normal height? ( wich is not yet by now )here is the clip on you tube :
Hopefully to here from you,
Greetings, Clara and Mouse
Watch out with the Hit-It boards!! My running contacts were going great and I decided to buy two of them to keep her honest when I wanted to start training sequences after the dogwalk. That way I didn’t have to pay as close attention to her feet. Good idea? WRONG!!!
I placed two boards on the ramp, between the first and third slats. After a few attempts where she was running at full speed, she hit the boards, slipped and wiped out BIG TIME! (The boards were advertized as having a non-slip surface, but apparently NOT). Zu did nothing but jump the entire contact zone and I had to lower the ramp until she stopped jumping and start over. It took almost a month to get her back to where she was.
I ended up buying some rubber granules to resurface the boards so they weren’t as slippery, but have not used them and don’t plan to either (they’re in a box in my shed). Anyone want to buy them???
Enough of that stuff…not a mistake I’ll make again. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.:-) So….we’re back to the old way, with my eyes and a clicker:-) And we’re quite happy with it too:-)
Tammy -- Thanks for your imput on the hit it boards. I have stopped using it at this point, and I think I will try to just use my eye to see were she is hitting. Here is our latest session
MUCH better!!! 🙂
Hello, Sylvia,
Looks like only the video off Mouse has reached you, en not the comment. So here it is. Mouse is a 14 month old Pappilon trained by your method. Do you think they are good enough? I olso work him on the A frame wich is two tirth of the original size. He starts jumping the top now, wich I like very much. It does mean that his contact on the A frame is not so pretty, becouse he lands with his front feet before the contact and his hind feets in it? Do I keep rewarding this?
Hope to here from you
greetings from Belgium, Clara and Mouse
Yes, hind feet only are perfectly o.k. for A-frame, you don’t want the dog any deeper than that, that’s why I never train dog-walk and A-frame at the same time, always dog-walk first and then just start using normal A-frame as you don’t want the same behaviour on the two.
Thanks for your comment! What do you think off the other RC? Good enough?
greetings, Clara
Sometimes, his hind feet are closer as I would wish… Is he naturally moving that way?
Hello, Sylvia.
Somethimes it is realy hard to see if his feet are enough seperated. Most off the time i train alone, and it is very hard for me to see, especially if he is behind me. If he is infront of me, it is easyer, but than he is not running so fast.:-( If he is just running fast( without bridge ) most of the times he takes such short strides.But sometimes at the bridge he does take longer strides, so I know he can. Can I improve that? grts
I trained running contacts using your method with my border collie Panic. He had pretty consistent contacts (although sort of slow) up until about 10 months ago. Since then, they have been very inconsistent. I think it stemmed from being exposed to rubber contacts, because he was very slow and cautious on them the first time and ever since then he has been inconsistent on all dogwalks. At first I just ignored it because I thought eventually he would get used to going back and forth between different surfaces but it hasn’t gotten any better. I don’t want him to stress out about it but I want him to be consistent. Every time I go out to work on the dogwalk he and I both get stressed out because he goes from doing really well and seeming to understand perfectly what I want to doing horribly. When he does it wrong and does not get a reward, the next time he does it really slowly and creeps down the dogwalk, but I don’t want to reward him for incorrect performances.
Thanks Silvia! -Adrian Rowan and Panic
Try putting the dog-walk between two tunnels and just run him from one to another, don’t mark the bad ones a all, but do click and jackpot the best ones. Not-confident and stressed dog is the last thing you want with running contacts, it always ruins performance, so you need to be careful not to mark the bad ones at all with dogs, too soft to take it with a smile 🙂 -- I need to do it with Bu.
Thank you so much for responding Silvia, it seems so simple but I make everything so complicated. So you don’t think I need to go back and do any retraining, or even go back to a contact that was a little lower? I know he has the behavior in him he just needs more confidence in himself!
I would first try with two tunnels and just running him over for few sessions. If that doesn’t help, you will need to go back down, but I don’t think it will be necessary.