Running Contact

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HopeShelties

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While we're on contacts, I thought I'd post about my greenies running contact success :) She was taught last winter using Silvia Trkman's method.
Tuesday night, it felt like all of the work has really paid off. My trainer commented that of all of my dogs, Aurora, who was started from the get go with the Trkman method, has the best contacts. She truly accelerates through the contacts and stays on through the end. Her back feet are hitting the second slat up from the bottom on the aframe. She stays on to the very end on both the a-frame and dog walk.
She also has naturally developed what so many who do a running seem to want, and train with various methods to get. She is accelerating full out up the a-frame, leaps the top, and comes down about halfway down the a-frame (do a search on clean runs yahoogroup to see how many people try to train this). It seems to make it more difficult to bail off the contact early.
Athena and Kai were more just dogs who naturally hit the yellow. Aurora and Ember I had to train. Ember is still greener and younger, so isn't finished yet, but is also coming along nicely with her running. I feel this really has turned out to be the right method for my dogs. It has given me such nice contacts on them.
I'm very proud of what I have accomplished with this dog. If I can ever get her confident enough to compete around other dogs, she's going to be tough to beat in the 12" division.
 
Oh that sounds so wonderful! I'm so jealous right now. You should take a video for all of us to see.

Today was our first official training of the running contact. It went ok I guess, but I had to run with them to the target in order for them not to jump off the end. If I stood by the target, they would run and jump off the end each time. I cannot stand by the end of the plank, as I do not want to kill my decel cue with them by having them run past me while I am standing still. So, it's a work in progress...
 
HopeShelties said:
While we're on contacts, I thought I'd post about my greenies running contact success :) She was taught last winter using Silvia Trkman's method.
Tuesday night, it felt like all of the work has really paid off. My trainer commented that of all of my dogs, Aurora, who was started from the get go with the Trkman method, has the best contacts. She truly accelerates through the contacts and stays on through the end. Her back feet are hitting the second slat up from the bottom on the aframe. She stays on to the very end on both the a-frame and dog walk.
She also has naturally developed what so many who do a running seem to want, and train with various methods to get. She is accelerating full out up the a-frame, leaps the top, and comes down about halfway down the a-frame (do a search on clean runs yahoogroup to see how many people try to train this). It seems to make it more difficult to bail off the contact early.
Athena and Kai were more just dogs who naturally hit the yellow. Aurora and Ember I had to train. Ember is still greener and younger, so isn't finished yet, but is also coming along nicely with her running. I feel this really has turned out to be the right method for my dogs. It has given me such nice contacts on them.
I'm very proud of what I have accomplished with this dog. If I can ever get her confident enough to compete around other dogs, she's going to be tough to beat in the 12" division.
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Stacey, congratulations on your achievements- as longs as we happy about what we did nobody can take it away from us.... and no amount of titles means more!
I am still somewhere in the limbo with Che's contacts, I never set to teach anything special but always rewarded heavily at the bottom of the contacts. Che just runs naturally and is not blowing any, even that I have now decent lateral distance and able to pull lateral in the middle of a frame, teeter or DW... I started training board 2o2o and Che loves it and keeps offering but so far does not generalizes it to contacts yet... but I do not know.... what if I just let him run as he does now?
 
If he's already doing a nice running, and you are able to do all that you are doing already with him, you may not need a 2o2o. Sounds like he is like my older girls and is one of the dogs who can naturally stride right into the yellow.
It can be challenging to have a running on a fast dog, and from what I've gathered, Che is fast. There are courses where it'll be more difficult because of a running, but if you are up to it, and he continues to be successful in not bailing, it can be really rewarding. It would be an advantage at the higher levels (excellent/masters) as often if will give you an edge over the dogs with a 2o2o, as they are losing time stopping.
 
Congrates, It sure is nice when you get that feeling of accomplishment & success.
I agree it sure is funny how some dogs just seem to have a natural stride for hitting the contact, while others just don't and really have to work at it.
 
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