Running contact vs.2on/2off

[onice]

The contact zone is not an easy learn for my precius...so I have to get on with it sooner than later teaching her this methood.

[agilityrunningdogs]

My Schnauzers have running contacts - not something I really trained and I regret it now with Annie who misses the downside of her dogwalk contact 10% of the time. Luckily, Komet's stride seems to hit it just right and no matter how fast he goes he rarely misses it. Mal on the other hand is doing a standing 2o2o A-Frame, 2o2o with a down on the dogwalk and teeter (the effect is a sliding teeter). When he gets running, he just turns so frantic that if there is no end behavior, then he will just flatten out and stride right over it without realizing what he has done. In my opinion, a 2o2o is more reliable than a running, and really can be just as fast since you have the chance to get ahead, position yourself correctly and tighten the dog's line to the next obstacle.

[Pat W.]

Personally I prefer a 2o2o to the running. If the running is not trained correctly it can break down very quickly to no contact at all. There are several people on here that do use the Running successfully but to be honest I need the nano second breather to catch my breath LOL. Also as pointed out by Katie, you have the opportunity to correct a line, or make a line tighter for the dog 2o2o. Unless you are going for world team or extremely competitive where 100ths of a second matter to you I wouldnt worry about the running contact

[in2adventure]

You'll find lots of discussions on here about contacts and how to train them. Like others have said, running contacts can get quickly out of hand and the dog will still blow them off if the striding is not taught correctly. 2o2o is a great way to get your contacts most of the time. It helps control the dogs end behavior on the contact and really doesn't slow them down much. Most of the dogs I see in trials are taught this and the handlers only hold them for a split second, not 2 or 3 like they would in a training class.

 

Lucia has a modified running that I'm not super happy with. It is REALLY slow, she only hits it about 80% of the time and it makes distant work very hard on contacts. I'm thinking of retraining her with 2o2o. I trained her before I knew a better handle method. Grady was trained with 2o2o and backchained. He was taught the end behavior and then we worked our way backwards over the dogwalk to make it fast and accurate. He's only 15 months and is not 100% yet, but by the time he starts trialing, I'm confident it'll be close.

 

If you're not striving for World, 2o2o is a very good way to train.

[onice]

Thank you so much for your information.

I have been reading about the running contackt on silvia Trkman website, and I´m not sure if I have the patience in teaching her that, and 2o2o seems much more easier for me who has never trained an agility dog before.

So my decision is 2o2o, so thank you.

[Freeman 101]

I put a lot of work in our contacts and we do 2o2o. I often use the contact to position myself to the next obstacle which would be hard to do if I did running contacts.

[MrRipley]

Maybe a little late to weigh in here, but I am training Rip to have a running a-frame contact, but 2o2o on the dogwalk and teeter. I am using the Rachel Sanders method for the a-frame, which involves using a PVC "box" about the size of the yellow contact area and lots of groundwork, and then moving the PVC box onto the frame. So far I'm happy with it -- Rip jumps the top of the frame and then takes two strides on the downside, hitting the contact area (within the PVC box) with all 4 feet.

 

My thinking is not only speed, but this seems easier on the dog physically. I think a running dogwalk contact presents lots more handling challenges at the end than I feel capable of dealing with at this point, with a novice dog