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 🙂 ) |
Dear Silvia,
as you said, Charlies Contacts really, really improved! 😀
I´m so happy with it!
Here is a video, but i think this contact is not as good as normal! :S
What do you think about it? And i think the whole dogwalk could be faster!?
Greets, Laura and Charlie 🙂
Cool! Congratulations on your win!!! It looks pretty fast to me… Did you ever time it?
Thank you :D, he´s so great now! Also his turns are much better!
Okay, maybe i´m just over-ambitious :D! No, i didn´t, i´ll do it at the nextr training!
Oh, with my video cutter i can time it … it´s circa 1.6! Mhhhh 😀
I think that’s pretty good for a dog of his size… I think turns can sure give you more time as trying to speed up his dog-walk 🙂
hahahaha
okay, you´re right! But i think it´s easier to work on faster dogwalk than on turns!! 😀
That’s true 🙂 I sometimes forget training other things just because training dog-walk is so much fun 🙂
Hi Silvia!
Spur is getting more and more confidence!! Doing both flat plank work and full dog walk is really helping him regain his speed!! Also, throwing the ball way in advance is helping a lot!! Less stride adjustments, but his is still adjusting some as you will see. Now we are getting some adjustments as he looks to see the ball toss. Sorry, video is poor quality, but you can see his head turn a little at the top sometimes, which causes some slow down/stride adjustment. Should I doing anything about that, or just keep doing what we are doing? I try to vary when I throw it and how I throw it.
I am not very good at throwing I guess and now that it is really cold it sometimes got stuck on my gloves and tossed badly, which you will see in the video. Where he stops dead, it landed just under the down ramp. 😛 I now take off my gloves!!!
Thank you!!! He is still much slower on strange dog walks, but much better and every time he is better!! It may take him a long time, but things are very much better and I am happy with his progress!! 😀
**BTW -- LOVE the cik and cap DVD!!! Thank you for mailing it so quickly!!
Hi Silvia,
Thanks for being so generous with your training knowledge. I love your website, and I’m learning so much from it!
My dog, Sparrow, is about 2 years old (she’s a rescue dog, so we’re not exactly sure how old she is). In the video, it looks like her hind feet are together sometimes, although she has not missed the contact at all since I raised the dogwalk to full height. I’m not so good at seeing hind feet separation while she’s running, so I did reward all of these. What do you think?
Katie
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If she is constantly hitting, then I wouldn’t worry. She is doing some more stride adjustments as necessary, but that might pass with more confidence.
Ok, great! We went to class last night, and she hit the contact every time on a brand-new-to-her dogwalk. So far so good.
I will see how it holds up for the next few weeks and then post an update.
Thanks so much!
Hej Silvia.. Again.
I have written here before about my potiner mix Bella. I uploaded a video too, and you said that she could be faster, and I should try with toys, and I works, she running much faster now, but here is the problem!:
It’s going too fast, I can’t see if she is touching..??
I can see your dogs are fast too, what did you do?
I can make a video tomorrow if you wanna see??
-Michelle & Bella
Doesn’t matter if she is touching at this point, just focus on running. Try to tape your sessions and then review it, it will help you see better what she is doing when training her.
Hi Silvia, in the past few days we were finally able to start training running contacts again. I think he much prefers the new plank, because the old one had pebbles on it and this one has sand, so perhaps I should thank whoever took the old one! 🙂
Today I raised the board from 35cm to 45, simply because I don’t have a good way to measure the height and I have to calculate it from the video -- and by then it’s too late to correct it 🙂
Here’s how he did:
Do you think it’s OK or should I try to put it lower next time?
Also, I have a feeling that on the tries when he hits the end of the plank his stride is too short. For example, the stride on 0:31 hits the contact, but is too short compared to how he normally runs. On the next try (0:35) he misses the contact, but he stretches the way he does when he runs after frisbee (I can get a video of that too, if it helps). What do you think about length of stride?
Thank you 🙂
As long as he is getting that low and not adding height to the stride, it’s o.k. I think this height is o.k., but why don’t you start him further back?
It looked OK to me while training, it was only after I watched the video that I started to think that stride might be too short. I will start him further back, thanks 🙂
Silvia --
Here are two sessions that I taped this week. Monday I tried using a 24″ table the same way I had used the 16″ table. But as you can see her striding is off b/c she concerned about getting up just right so she can stride on to the plank. Once she misses with one foot and kinda splats on the table. I decided not to repeat this set up again. I figured she needed more runway to get her striding together, so I put the 24″ table in front of a picnic table with carpeting on them. Luckily, the two tables are only about 2″ different in height. I was so pleased with the first session, I ran in and set up the camera from inside my house so I could get my mom ( who lives with us) to tape it for me.
My questions are how best do you think to progress?
work this set up for awhile and do turns and crosses?
add the up plank to the tables after? or before?
I am still using the food target about 15′ out, should I put a jump in between?
I have a really adjustable DW so it can go down to this height when the time comes.
I am so happy with her progress…I just don’t want to mess it up now. ( especially since she is a 7 yo retrain ( several times attempting to retrain other methods)
Hi Silvia,
I have watched all your videos and followed your training for years now. Thanks for providing us with such great information and entertaining videos.
My young border collie is getting close to starting his contact training. I plan to do a 2on2off dog walk contacts and a running A Frame.
It seems that because the A Frame is so much steeper, the dogs don’t run over like the Dog Walk…but leap the apex and bounce two strides going down.
I was wonder if your method will work well for just teaching an A Frame?? Or if you have another suggestion.
Thanks so much!!
For just the A-frame, you start similarly, but then don’t go up so gradually as you don’t want too low hits. Usually, you have to go slowly up till about 0.5m and then very quickly raise to almost full height and then click for striding over the top + one more stride -- comes naturally for most BCs (with an exception of Bi who absolutely needs to do A-frame in one stride…). Also, it’s important you start training running A-frame before you put 2on2off position on a real dog-walk.
Recently started on full size walk. Upon reviewing our video I noticed that on his last stride his feet are visibly closer together and he looks like he kicks up his heels, looks like jumping to me on the video. I have to admit when I was training I didn’t notice it. He does quite consistently hit the yellow. Do you think I should go back down and try to get him to stride out better?
Sorry about the darkness, most of our training is happening under the lights, that time of year.
Laurie
Can’t see well because of the darkness, but could it be he is turning his head back to you and does it from this reason? Did you ever try tossing a toy in advance? -- That often fixes the striding and forward focus. But it looks pretty good already now, nice work! 🙂
I decided to go back down as I felt he could tell I was trying to figure something out and was slowing down. He is extremely sensitive and it doesn’t take much to shake him I have to be very careful. I was very reassured when you had posted that you reward all tries and jackpot the good ones, as this is what I have to do with him. I set up a plank on the dogwalk (the way you had set up for Le in your video) and am restraining him and putting his toy on the ground. I have been working on sending to a toy and he has finally figured it out:) He has sped right back up but I am going to take some time down a bit lower and build more confidence for both of us. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer. Will try throwing toy in advance as well. I have some time off over the holidays so I will try to get some daylight footage to post so that you can actually see.
Thanks so much
Laurie
I have been working my BC puppy on running contacts for a few months now. Tonight was our first time at the agility club on full sized equipment. His dog walk is looking good. Tonight was his first time on the A-Frame and as you claim, he was a total natural. I have a question about 1 vs. 2 hits on the downside. He goes so fast that he lands in the yellow after flying over the top. Is this a really bad thing that I should train out or is a one hit A-Frame ok if it’s 100% hit rate?
Sounds great! For the A-frame, I prefer two strides, but let the dog choose. They often start off with one and then switch to two as they figure out it’s more comfortable, but some dogs have too long stride for two (Bi for example), so I let them do one -- she will do two when coming to the A-frame with less speed, though. But as long as it’s 100% -- don’t worry 🙂