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!
Two super fun classes starting soon!!! Join us in October Foundations class – or November Tricks/Puppy class! |
 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 🙂 ) |
H Silvia, a video from Astro last run in competition, he is getting better with the running A-Frame 🙂
Did you forget the link?
Oh!! Yes, Here is the link
Very cool! Astro is doing great!
Hello Silvia!!
I’m in a situation I’m hoping you can help me with? I have your RC DVD and it has been greatly helpful!! I actually just watched it again a couple days ago… however I could not find any suggestions for the “problem” I am encountering.
My 3 y/o BC girl has worked up to full height over the past 7 months. She’s naturally a very cautious/worrysome, sensitive and perfectionist dog. We’ve worked through many insecurities along the way (stress, skipping, over-reaching, leaping, dependence on mat, etc) but have been doing pretty well after we overcome each challenge and really encourage/enjoy speed and craziness 🙂 However, here more recently after a while of trying to work on some simple handling after the DW (pulls/pushes, front crosses, call off/call to correct tunnel entrance, etc) which can be a little stressful for Tess I noticed Tess started losing her feet separation. So I dropped the handling and went back to only straight exits… problem being that even as her separation is getting a little better though still very inconsistent I have realized that she is collecting at the 2nd apex in an attempt to adjust her stride and make sure she hits the contact… I’ve lowered the DW to 3ft in an attempt to encourage more extension. I’ve noticed on the tries she offers full extension her feet separation is usually good or very good so I’m thinking it’s not a problem with the edge again, however when she starts collecting around that 2nd apex her foot separation is usually very poor, maybe even jumps, starting to even cause complete misses.
I’ve been encouraging driving ahead (trying to encourage more extension) and in order to keep her from stressing I’ve been ignoring her “jumps”/misses and just not jackpotting those tries.
Should I just run and reward and expect it to disappear on it’s own? Should I not reward those tries at all? Go back to flat board so that she won’t be adjusting to hit the contact and will instead just run? I’m just at a loss as to what I should be doing in order to get her feet separation consistently back as well as get her extending for adjustments vs collecting for them. Also when I try to get her driving even harder by throwing a toy as she’s running the DW this backfires on me as she instead applies more self-control and tries extra hard to hit her contact by giving even more collection as she nears the 2nd apex/down-ramp.
Hoping you have some suggestions to help us!! Tess certainly is growing me as a trainer as she challenges my training abilities 🙂 Thanks so much!!
With sensitive dogs like this, you can’t do much of handling after DW yes… With Bu, I went just straight for years, it’s only then she could handle more 🙂 But as she is so much of a listener, it was no problem to handle whatever needed in trials, I just avoided repetitions of difficult stuff. To get extension back, you can try lower DW yes and maybe speed circles tunnel-DW-tunnel -- keep going for not so good tries, click&JP for the best ones. You can also help her with mat if necessary.
Thanks Silvia!! Okay, I will set aside my hopes for actually handling off the DW for some time… so with a sensitive dog like her & Bu would you rather just run her straight off the DW and if it’s not a straight ahead obstacle then call to hand and only after that redirect to whatever comes next? Only after watching your DVD for the 3rd or 4th time did I finally catch the part about calling to hand… just so much information to soak in!! 🙂
I will definitely work on the speed circles and will keep her at a lower height until I’m seeing more extension on a consistent basis. Thanks so much for the ideas!
Other as for collection turns, I always run straight off and then handle whatever needed on flat -- with all dogs… But with Bu, I didn’t even do that, I was going just straight in 99%, no calling off the obvious obstacle.
Hey Silvia 🙂 Me again… Since you’re suggestion I’ve been doing the speed circles (over the past 2-2.5 weeks) and *when* she gives me separation & hits the quality is MUCH better than she had been giving previously, also I *started* getting more extension rather than collection from her for adjustments! However the tries she gives me that do *not* have separation & hits are getting more and more leapy & more and more often and while her quality of separation/hits is greatly improving I’m afraid it would seem her % of separation/hits seems to only be greatly reducing…
I’m not sure what to do… I can’t tell if she’s stressing more and more about the end/edge or simply leaving the board or if she is just starting to think that leaping, although not rewarded but rather just circle back for a retry, is an acceptable behavior. I know it sounds silly that I cannot tell which it is but with keeping her happy happy happy with the speed circle game she’s not showing noticeable stressing signs other than possibly her growing % of just leaping off the DW. And as her hit % is falling and we are therefore doing more circles before getting a rewardable attempt I *am* starting to notice collection for adjustments again as she picks up on things not being quite right due to the repetitions and lack of reward…
I don’t know that this is a sensitivity to the end/edge again but in the past when she became thoroughly dependent on the carpet and could not handle me attempting to begin fading it without reverting to 95% leaping I found a way to have her *want* the end rather than being worried about it even if she might’ve hit the contact… I taught her this by placing a foot target mat on the middle of contact but not after it and would have her drive out to the tunnel before throwing her toy to keep the forward focus & on the tries that she didn’t hit her mat target I’d simply have her come back after the tunnel and jump on from the side to hit her target and then drive out again to the tunnel before throwing the reward or trying the entire DW again. This seemed to REALLY change her attitude about the end/edge of the board and I saw all worries fade and since she treated it as a “hit & run” rather than a “stop & stare” I began not only seeing front feet but also excellent rear feet separation/hits (-for the most part) as well. After she forgot her worries about the end of the board I began acting like the mat wasn’t even there and just picked back up on your ideas for teaching the dog by rewarding separation/deepness vs just hitting the mat however and I also quit having her come back and jump on from the side to step on the mat target if she’d miss but rather would just use the lack of value in her reward to show her the difference. She now doesn’t even consider the mat (probably even if I wanted her to unless I did some foundation foot target work again) since we decided we *liked* the end and could go back to rewarding for separation/hits. I actually liked the fact that she forgot about the target as I want her focusing forward as in your method but just needed her to even *want* the end in the first place. Problem being I’m afraid that between her cautious natural tendencies & the mat target work we did that that is what has caused her to revert back to collection when challenges arise….
Do you have any thoughts on what it sounds like these current issues might be being caused by?
Although I’d prefer not to, I’m starting to consider just going back to somewhere between flat boards & 2ft high DW and restart training from there… She already adjusts her stride so finding the perfect start spot to encourage natural/extended running might be a challenge but we could still try. Or I could go back to having her intentionally focus on the mat target but I’m afraid that while that might bring back enthusiasm for hitting the end/edge of the board again that it wouldn’t solve the collection tendencies so I’m thinking it’s a bad idea? Also it seems that since her leaping tendencies began again (before your speed tunnel suggestion) she developed a sensitivity to what she sees after the DW (tunnel closer or more stretched out than before, jump or tunnel rather than the other, my speed- location doesn’t seem to be a problem though, etc). I do think it will help if I start her off again driving into nothing or to a static toy after the jump/obstacle but where we are now in her training this just causes her to collect down the board & to the toy/jump rather than driving hard to the toy/jump, although I do think lowering the height drastically or even stating over at flat boards that she’d start to drive hard again to the static toy/jump as she wouldn’t be so cautious about hitting her contact.
I’ll admit it has crossed my mind that maybe if I remove a possible sensitivity (the obstacles after the DW) that maybe we will find better success with just driving “into nothing” and handle it as such when we start trialing and then just redirect to whatever obstacle comes next? If there’s an obstacle right after the DW I could see her freaking out though…. As you can probably tell I’m just really lost as to what it is I’m working against and how I can help her 🙁
Do you have any thoughts on things to try?
Sorry for all the posts… I’ve been experimenting over the last session or two and found if I send her into a tunnel BEFORE the DW and have her take the DW and run to a static toy then she tends to jump/leap OR miss by a long shot but with usually good separation…. if I send from a sit-stay to the DW then I get the same results….. however if I have her take something like the weaves and wrap tightly onto the DW to run to her static toy I’m getting decent and sometimes even really good separation AND hits! Not sure what this says though and I’m leaving any fast movement from ME out of the picture for now…. just thought that might give some better insight into what could be going on… will stick with this set-up until I can get your opinion on things 🙂
You know I’m always happy to take a quick look and give free advice -- but this here looks like a 45 min job… Possibly twice as much as I can’t really advise without seeing the videos. Imagine if everybody who posted on those pages would expect that from me? Try to follow the general rule of helping her to succeed on a given set up and if still not getting high enough successful rate, return to the last successful set up. If you need more help, it would make sense to join a class…
I’m sorry Silvia, I did not mean to upset you and I apologize for asking so much from you. I would LOVE to join your classes and think they’d be very helpful, however I do not have even a decent upload/download ability to view or post videos and if that weren’t enough both my computer and camera are very old and so editing (cropping or slow-motion viewing) does not appear to be possible (thus the reason why I did not offer video to view)… since I haven’t the ability to join your classes I did what I had the ability to do and bought your DVD and while it has been greatly helpful over the last 10+ months and still holds information I’m finding very valuable during our journey I have come across this challenge that I can not find a working suggestion for within the DVD.
I realize I was asking an awful lot and that your time is valuable yet you still do your best to help anyone who seeks your help. I’m honestly not sure how you manage everything that you do. I hope you’ll forgive me for asking and bothering you with such a challenging situation to try to dissect. I’ll continue trying my best to figure this out and will refrain from asking you anything more on it. Thank you for all the help you have given me and my girl thus far and all the help you freely offer to anyone who seeks it.
No worries, you can still post summed up questions, but this was really time consuming to follow without a video. If the problem starts when you add an obstacle after, remove it for now, then add it very far and without a bar, then very gradually bring it closer and raise it. You can also join a class without posting videos, I can take more time for my students.
Hello again Silvia; i have been trying to get forward focus without the ball+speed+extension but it looks like its impossible with my dog.
It has been like 2 months like that, i am training now on a full DW( i was training in a small one,dunno if you remember my story),he does perfect tries with a throwing ball, but then i try a static toy or my movement and my dog does not focus ahead and looses speed and extension all togheter and that ends up with a kinda leapy behaviour.
He still hits the contact most of the time, but thats clearly not what i was looking for when i began training RC because i feel its gonna break with leapy behaviour, i feel like if we continue like this we will have forever bad contacts.
Truth is im about to give up, because fading the toy ruins all the behaviour i trained and i dont see him running the same way without the ball anytime soon, so i feel like im wasting hours of my time trying to get something that certainly will not work. Last hope is to ask you for any advice, thanks in advance 🙂
So far, we faded the toy for all the dogs successfully, so I’m sure it can be done in your case as well 🙂 Try earlier&earlier throws to eventually get to a static toy OR ask a helper to make the “static” toy alive OR throw the toy later&later to switch to a toy thrown after the hit… -- many possible options, the best one depends on a dog…
Will try to launch it sooner and sooner, if i launch after the hit the only thing i get its the dog staring at me :S
I guess i lack some patience after all,it’s been around 4 to 5 months right now with few stops on the way and im getting a bit tired 🙁
Thanks for the help Silvia.
You can’t switch from one day to another -- you need to work towards earlier OR later throws gradually. Teaching him a good forward drive away from DW will help too.
Hi Silvia! Just a short video of Jones! I have been occasionally asking for a 90 degree turn to a jump. He is doing SO well. Notice -- I am on his right side! 😀 He is off to Nationals next week! He is as ready as you can get a dog in a couple of months, LOL!!! Cheers!!! Amy
It’s unavailable…
Sorry, we have had internet issues today.
Looks great! Definitely all ready!!!
Reporting in on Jones. He has hit every DW and they have just gotten better and better and most have been with Dee on his right and a sharp right turn! GOOD BOY!! Glad we tried those just before they left!!! AND, he made it into Grand Prix finals tomorrow!!! Probably wouldn’t have made the time with a 2o2o!!! 😀 I am SO proud!!! I won’t have video probably until I get back from Italy.
**Some sad news, though, I read on facebook that Smitty fell off the DW and is injured. 🙁 Not sure what the injury is.
Wow, way to go Jones! Expecting some good news tomorrow as well. And yes, I’ve just talked to Melanie, what a nightmare… 🙁
Oh, do you know what is wrong? she isn’t telling us on Facebook.
She doubts she got the right diagnosis, so she is taking her to her own physiotherapist…
Aw, poor Jones got into ibuprofen last night and had to have peroxide to vomit, so he was sick all night. He ran clean, but didn’t feel well at all and even trotted some. 🙁
Oh no, what a bad luck… Well, at least they got it out and keep his stomach safe…
well I guess not… He’s in the hospital on I/Vs. I am hoping by tomorrow we will have some news.
Oh no… 🙁 Is he just dehydrated because of vomiting or?
No, he had bad kidney values, but they are better today. till too high BUN, but everything else is coming down and he ate and held it down and is barking. So, sounds like he will be OK. PHEW!!!
Huh, good to hear that!
His BUN is 85, was 96. anything over 90 is kidney failure, poor guy. I can’t believe he ran agility feeling so bad. 🙁
He is coming home!!! 😀
Hi Silvia! A little question about running contact on the A-frame: is it a problem if my dog have only one stride while going down? It looks like she’s jumping over the top.
One hit as such is not a problem, Bi always does one hit only. But jumping over the top like this is a problem, so you can only use no speed approaches on this height and only add speedier approaches once you get close to full height.
Thanks for answering so fast and for this advice.
Hi Silvia, 🙂
the weather is so bad we practiced RC only 3 times in the last few weeks. 🙁
We were at 110 cm now and we were able to try a friends’ DW last weekend. New place (much smaller!), different DW and she had to run uphill, because of space limitation. We did 4 repetitions (1 close enough hit --> R and 3 hits with 2rf --> JP). She had less seperation, but I was happy. 🙂 (maybe downhill would give her more speed 😉 )
I was a bit unsure about the number of repetitions. It’s a new DW and the surface is very rough -- is that bad for her paws?
But than I recognized that’s a shorter DW (3,60 per element not 3,80 like ours) -- that was the reason why she was able to start down ramp with hind feet first and managed to hit without her normal seperation…
The plan was to practice 2 times/week, but maybe we won’t be able to practice with the longer DW at the club only. Do you think it’s ok if we have to practice once with our longer and once with the shorter one?
Greetings!
Iris & Holly
Sure, practice on as many different DWs as possible! I never heard of problems with paws because of DW surface, so I don’t think it can be an issue, but of course, keep an eye on her paws. I’m sure her separation will get better with more experience on different DWs as well. Good luck with the weather!
Thank you for your fast answer!
By the way, our A-frame is on full height already with very little training! 🙂 She’s mostly in and does very rarely fly over the apex (once in the last session with more speed and with me running too far ahead). I think it looks good. We practice speedier approaches now and try to add some handling before and after.
Cool, just use it in sequences then!
Jones DW from today! 😀 Added a stride, but still not bad!
Wow, he is all back!!! Great run, he sure is fast -- and great DW too!
Hi Silvia!! I thought you might enjoy seeing Jones’ progress! I am so happy with how he is doing!!! He is slowly doing more and more two hit downs, with that first hit having more reach and separation which I think must be more comfortable! 😀 He seems to tire a bit more after his near death experience and can’t do as many reps we have found. His hits get higher towards the end of a session, if we do too many, so we have shortened his sessions some. We are working more and more turns and he is doing well with those, too!
Yay Jones! Looks great!
httpv://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6dXnJRfvmA_RjFFSG04TTFkZlE/edit?usp=sharing
Oops- that didn’t work will try again!
That won’t work, you need to upload the video to YouTube or similar first…
Thanks got it now
Jet’s RC training- this is our first time training RC & they are definitely making us smile 🙂
This is our second session at full height & it took us about 7 or 8 weeks to get from low full length DW to full height with 2 heights in between.
Our only real problem was a bit of overreaching due to a bad set up on the plank & avoiding the edge. I think he does still overreach at the edge sometimes and under reach if he’s a bit out of balance coming down.
Would love any feedback & thank you for the fantastic DVD & system
Great, showing really great understanding already! Still experimenting with stridings, but that’s normal for 2nd session on full height, he just needs some more experience and confidence now. Great job!
Thank you 🙂 would you challenge him with different starting points/speeds while he’s experimenting or let him get more confident first?
No, I would make it extra easy for now and use the easiest starting spot to get nice deep 2rf hits with good separation -- and add challenges later, once hits get consistent and the style as good as we want.