Team Fernandezlopez

Esteban and I have been thinking alot about running contacts lately. We are both close to getting new puppies (my youngest dog is 8 and his youngest is 6) and are struggling with how to train them. We are also probably going to end up with two very different dogs. I will be getting a working Rottweiler, while he will most likely be getting a Border Collie. I think this has caused us to come to different conclusions – both of which are probably right for each of us and our future dogs.

After much thought, I decided that I don’t think running contacts are the right answer for me and my future Rottie. The reason is two-fold, I believe the training is harder. With a Border Collie (even most big ones), it’s not much of a change of stride to hit the contact – as long as they don’t leap at the end. With a driven, fast, Rottie (like our Sammie), they can more easily miss the zone with their natural stride. I especially like the Silvia Trkman method (as there is nothing to fade), however, it seems to me that it depends on the dog’s natural stride taking them into the yellow. You simply teach them to stride and not jump toward the end. But what if they miss even without jumping? Granted – 99% of the dogs out there that have that kindof stride and power don’t usually have the speed. But our once in a lifetime rottie does – and I’m hoping my next one will too. However, even stride aside, I feel that a fast, powerful dog will usually have the power to get through the contact quickly (ie: have a fast contact from end to end), and still have the power to accelerate out of a 2o2o. In addition, that kindof dog is going to LOSE time on any turn after the contact. A medium stride dog has more strides to turn after the contact – even with lots of momentum. A Border Collie has the finesse to make a tight turn as well. However, a big powerful dog with a running contact is going to find it much harder to turn after a contact.

So – I feel that for MY dog, the reward (the increase in speed) is minimal (due to power over the contact and power out of the 2o2o) or even negative (such power and stride is harder to turn off a running contact). And for this minimal reward, I pay a larger price – less consistency and more training. Not only do I believe running contacts to be less consistent than 2o2o (esp factoring in bad calls), I feel the larger strided the dog – the MORE often they are going to miss. So compared to the ‘average’ – I pay a larger price for a smaller reward.

Now take our little BC. Her stride will clearly take her into the contact zone. It’s just a matter of teaching her not to leap. And with a shorter stride – she might even get 3 or 4 feet in the contact zone reducing the chance of a bad call. Because of her shorter stride AND her BC athleticism – she can turn tight. So for her, you get a higher reward (big increase in speed – even on a turn) for a lower price (her natural stride make training and maintenance easier).

To me – this line of reasoning was a revelation. We had spent so much time talking about the best training method, but we never talked about WHO it was for. As we began considering puppies – the question became less academic (I’m not retraining my 8 yr old!) and more practical.

In an earlier blog, I denounced running contacts for big fast dogs as mythical and unreliable. However, I am now convinced that there is a generation of dogs in training that will revolutionize contact training. First, some key points:

1. Very few top competitors are using true running contacts. If you do anything (handling-wise) to alter your dog’s stride in order to hit the yellow, your dog does not have running contacts. Ideally, the dog does the contacts the same way independent of handler movement, every single time.

2. Strong contacts can literally be the difference in elite competition. Ask Linda Mecklenburg. At the most recent world team tryout, her younger dog Super won the first automatic spot on the team by beating Marcus Topps and Juice head to head in round 3. And Super went into that 3rd round trailing. Juice had a great run with no wide turns. So how did Super do it? By running through the aframe and dogwalk (incidentally, the only weak aspect of Juice’s agility game). Marcus had to actually slow Juice up to hit the yellow. Of note, in the past, Juice has missed the dogwalk down in more than one national final. FYI Juice made the team anyway by winning the 2nd automatic spot. If Super doesn’t win this round, I’m not sure they get picked for an at large spot, so the reward of running contacts here was huge.

3. With this very high reward comes tremendous risk: in watching the tryout video, Super barely had a paw in the yellow coming down the dogwalk (I think). There is concern among some trainers that judges are simply unable to consistently judge a running down contact by a super fast dog.

4. Silvia Trkman’s website damaged my brain. After watching her dog trick videos and reading her running contact training method, which she throws up on her web site for anyone to read at silvia.trkman.net, I became convinced that a running contact could be taught.

5. Then I see this month’s Clean Run, which has Rachel Sanders’ PVC box for running down the aframe, and her introduction reads like she’s peering into my head:

‘I flatly rejected the notion that dogs must have the “right stride length” or a certain “body type” to master a running A-frame. I kept thinking that long ago agility trainers believed that you couldn’t teach dogs to weave on both sides…When I observed many dogs lengthen and shorten their strides while jumping, the “natural stride length” statements seemed too simple an answer to explain successes and failures.’

She goes on to mention her training failures before bringing us to her PVC box method, which you can read about in the article.

6. I’ve seen its impact, I think it can be done, I want it, but how do I get it?? Some reservations: Silvia Trkman’s midi dog missed several down contacts at a recent FCI world champs, and Rachel Sanders notes that the “success rate with this method is encouragingly high…” Ummm…what exactly does THAT mean? I think it means her method is not 100% reliable. Greg Derrett will counter that the success rate with his method (2o2o with fast release only at major competitions) is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT and he has never ever tasted the bitterness of having his dog miss a down contact at a big event.

7. Or maybe we rethink the contacts and admit that 100% accuracy is NOT THE GOAL. Whaaaaat? Hear me out—-sometimes the great dogs pop a pole, drop a bar, turn wide, etc due to a high risk/high reward maneuver and maybe we should view the running contact the same way. No one has 100% weave poles. Everyone has messed them up at least once in a dog’s career. Everyone. Everyone has dropped a bar. And so on.

8. Anyhow, back to the point. What method?? I’ll get back to you on that one. I will leave you with this, one of my new favorite handlers: Daisy Peel and her pup