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 🙂 ) |
Sorry, there’s some extra random clips in this vid LOL!!!
Here is a video of my dad’s sheltie Zissi.
I’am going to learn her running contacts.
I think she jumps a little higher in her running, than Zushi does.
Can i go to plank work with her to. Or should i train the carpet and running more?
Looks good! Ready to try it on a plank!
Hi Silvia,
here is our latest video of Fames running contacts (last two sessions). I added the poles around our plank, because with the longer and thinner plank and me not beeing able to throw really really straith Fame always came of the plank at the end.
Would you recommand me to continue training with the poles, so Fame gets used to hit the pole (no matter how bad I throw) or would you train the plank “naked” even though she sometimes doesn´t hit the contacts?
In the last part of the video I started to train beeing infront of the plank calling her and the last three runs I send her (by throwing the toy ahead). What do you think?
Thank you very much in advance 😉
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/TheDumeklemmer?feature=mhum
You can keep the poles for a while, but do start to fade them by setting them further apart. Once the plank gets higher, staying on a plank won’t be a problem anymore anyway, but if you keep the poles too long, it’s hard to know if they’re not cueing from them. Also, pay attention to hind feet separation, sometimes her hind feet are closer together as you would wish for.
4th try -- if that shouldn´t work, I will give up -- promise!
You are clicking for both jumping and for touching the contact.. Maybe you chould stop using clicker to teach this, I stopped too, because clicked at the wrong time.. 🙂
Hi Silvia,
thank you very much for your fast answer.
Ok, than I will already start to reduce the amount of poles slowly by just putting the poles further away from eachother.
But I have a question concerning the hind feet seperation. Do you think that in all here runs her hind feet are to close together or only in the ones were she kind of jumps? What can I do to help her to understand that she is supposed to do a longer striding?
Thank you so much for your help.
Just pay attention to hind feet and click for more separation. I think in most tries she is not separating them as much as a BC running full speed should be -- tape her running on the ground and compare.
I understand what you mean and I think I know why she maybe isn´t running full speed. Our garden is seperated to the next one opposite of our house by a canal with water. And maybe she already has in mind to not run full speed because of the water? I am going to try to practise our running contacts at the front of our house on the street…..maybe she can put up more speed there. I will tape it and let you know.
Thanks anyway Simone
Still not as fast as he was during our RDW training at home with the ball tossed in advance, but he is getting faster in general all around. The RDW work was so fun for him last winter that I see him building back his confidence on the rest of the course, too!! It is slow improvements, but I am seeing improvements!! Thank you SO much for all your help!!! He’s a funny little worrier, but the RDW work helped him SO much!
We did have one missed contact at a trial where he wanted to do it in two strides and just couldn’t hang on. All others he has done perfectly! 😀
Very cool! It’s not uncommon at all the work you do on speed for RC transfers really nicely to other parts of agility too!
Hello,
just some news from us. Pepper finnaly has a RDW :)))
So far we haven’t tested it in tiral yet but so far it looks good.
He has some jumps and some perfect ones so I hope with time it’ll get even better.
I just stopped thinking what we were doing wrong and ran with him, no big fuss about it, even without clicking.
Maybe I’ll get around to filming him.
Bye, Tanja
Looking forward to see it! 🙂
Hello, Silvia I love your method and all of the work you put into helping all of us! Thank you! I have been going very slowly with my girl because she has a very large stride. I think she is very good about running and not jumping, but as I raise the DW she is hitting higher and higher consistently. The DW is at 24″ and she is hitting around the middle to just below the middle, just one stride. She does the dog walk in 3-4 strides like your bi. Should I continue to raise the DW until she naturally decides to put in a second stride, or stay where we are until I can get her landing lower? Or should I not be running her on a whole DW yet? Maybe move to just the end board?
Here is a short clip, sorry I do not have any good movie maker software and the quality is poor… =( It is hard to see, but I think she has pretty good hind feet separation.
USA dog-walk are shorter as ours, so I’m pretty sure you won’t get that second stride on a down ramp… I think her problem is she can’t get in in one stride and can’t fit two in either… What she needs to learn is to put hind feet on a down ramp first -- then the next stride would take her in (like Bi does on a video when showing 4 strides dog-walk). It’s a hard striding to figure out, so it’s very important she knows the importance of getting all the way down. I would play with different starting points a little, trying to get some really good hits you can jackpot and then challenge her some more so that she learns how important it is to get all the way down. So yes, some more of just down ramp work, starting her at different points of a middle plank.
Gotcha, so figure out how to get the behavior I want (getting all the way to the bottom), then once she gets good at that, change it slightly like we do with height. By doing more just one board work, she will be getting to the bottom, and getting clicked for that, then slowly move her back, adding in momentum slowly. That does make sense, thank you! She is sensitive like one of yours so I make sure to always throw the ball, and then just make a big deal out of the really good ones, throw the ball an extra time, etc, but I am afraid that it just isnt good enough because she is getting the ball thrown every time. Do you have any suggestions on how to jackpot when you are just throwing the ball?
Sensitive dogs usually know the difference between “just a thrown ball” and “I-LOVED-what-you-just-did ball” very well… Of course, you then want to switch to a toy, thrown only after the contact is done, but I wouldn’t worry about it for now just yet. I like plank work because the dog can really focus on just one thing and because different starting positions really teach them the importance of adjusting the stride to take the last one from the very end. However, start her far enough to still get good speed, there is no point in teaching running contacts in slow motion first 🙂