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Keeping Contacts Safe
- Kelly Daniel (Hybrid Dog Training)
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
We all know that agility contacts, like many of the skills in agility, are constantly being pushed for increases in speed. Whilst we have made changes in judging reccomendations, and equipment recently, the reality of this is that increased speed does increase the change of injury.
And with the increased popularity of running contacts, this means that the speed over contacts is getting faster and faster.
Here is some of the scientific research
15 % of agility dogs fell from a dogwalk in six months
30% of survey respondents had a close call with a dog walk (almost a fall) in the last 6 months
5% of dog walk incidents resulted in injury
Taller dogs, border collies, and dogs with inexperienced handlers are more at risk of dog walk related injury
Incidence rates on contacts:
Dogwalk: 2.10 incidents per 1,000 runs
Teeter: 1.04 per 1,000 runs
A-frame: 0.40 per 1,000 runs
Around 1/3 of dogs participating in the sport sustained an injury. About 42% of the injuries were attributed to jumping (16%), the A-Frame (14%), and the dog walk (11%).
For all dogs, soft tissue injuries were most common.
The shoulders and backs of dogs were most commonly injured.
Dogs were most commonly injured by contact with an obstacle. The A-frame, dogwalk and bar jump obstacles were responsible for nearly two-thirds of injuries that resulted from contact with the obstacle.
Biomechanics of contacts
The combination of speed, height, and acceleration and deceleration makes contacts biomechanically a complex skill.
The muscle strength required for the acceleration and deceleration comes primarily from the core. This is an area of many agility dogs that I find is weak. Border collies for example, are EXCELLENT at using momentum to power movements instead of good core engagement.
So what can we do to help our dog be safer on contacts?
There's the obvious answer here that many handlers don't want to hear. Slower contacts are likely to be safer, as there is less speed force. So training a stopped contact is likely to be safer than a running contact for example. We can also increase the safety of contacts with handling choices and line manipulation onto the contact.
I also prefer to teach a dog that it's ok to bail off. Many of the worst contact accidents that I've seen have resulted from a dog trying really hard to stay on the contact, even though physics is pulling them off.
But, in my opinion, one of the most beneficial things that you can do to help increase your dogs contact performance AND safety on contacts is fitness.
In fitness we can actively work on:
A dogs proprioception
Balance
Strength
Anytime we add muscle around joints we not only increase power and speed, but add additional joint stability. This has big potential to help reduce the chance of injury.
There is SO many awesome fitness exercises that we can do that are specific to the skills required in agility, including contacts.
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