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Rubber Contacts

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Rubberizing contacts has become more and more of a topic of discussion in the agility world.  Some are all for, and some are against.

I think rubber-coating is a good idea, since it provides more traction for the dogs’ claws.  If your dog can have more traction, they’re less likely to skid down the A-frame, or slide off the table. Anything to give my dog a leg up on contacts is a good thing in my book! 

We’ve started carrying rubber contact kits at Affordable Agility!  It’s a great product.   Check out this video of rubberized vs. sand treated contacts! Isn’t it awesome? What do you think of rubber contacts?

12 Comments on “Rubber Contacts”

  1. I love this kind of feature! My youngster prefers this kind of feature! May succeed, profit. That i needed some thing that will consume your three.5 4 weeks out of date child , this also is simply the matter we expected. She’s a median dimensions with regard to his your age however , extremely effective in addition to was initially obtaining tired of her baby bouncer desk chair together with playmat. This keeps your man pre-occupied intended for a long time and that he enjoys the actions involving swinging down and up. He’s nevertheless a touch too brief impressive ankles and shins scarcely touch the soil so that i set a nice container beneath to support prior to the revocation coils loosen up a little bit. It happens to be rather massive and even is not as uncomplicated to push out of place to place seeing that your partner’s alternative playthings. Generally, I will be incredibly happy together with would definitely recommend it to help everyone. Ohio, and is particularly super easy to build. Just took me with regards to 10 mins!

  2. Mariah, you have a great point! I agree that maybe it wouldn’t be the best on the teeters, but am still all for it on the dog walk and A-frame

  3. I think that it is a good idea to rubberize the dog walk and A-Frame but not the teeter. My dogs and many others were trained on wood and slide the teeter but if it is rubber and they try to slide, wouldn’t they come to a stop way to soon, freak out, and jump off? I don’t really see how it would help on the teeter. But since dogs run faster on the DW and Frame, I can see it being beneficial there.

  4. my 4H agility club just received a donated, homemade A frame made from sheet metal. We thought that painting it then covering the working surface with the rubber granules would be a good idea. The bonding agent has been used on painted aluminum but not on sheet metal. Has anyone ever tried it on sheet Metal?
    If the thicker rubber is better, do you have to make it thicker the first time you put it on or can you add more later?

    • More is not always better, more will just produce more chips coming off. A consistent even coating of a level spreading of chips is the desired application.

      Contactacoat says if the paint sticks to the metal, then the contactacoat will stay on. But with metal applications, there is no guarantee.

  5. I bought a kit to put rubber on the table that my club uses for our agility trials. I do think that the rubberized surface makes it easier for the dogs to hang on and not slide. The surface is nice to improve the footing for dogs, and to keep them from slipping. However, the rubber coating is very thin. I hate to read that dogs have hurt themselves doing face plants on contacts, but this thin coating of rubber is not nearly enough to cushion that kind of blow. The rubber sheets that NADAC agility uses are wonderful. They are thick and offer padding as well as firm footing for the dogs. I wish that AKC would approve the NADAC type contacts. If I were to rubberize another obstacle, I would choose to order extra rubber chips, so that the surface would be thicker.

  6. AgilityJapan: You have a valid point about the speed (both too slow and too fast) and ‘one paw off’ contacts just hurt to watch! Rubber contacts can’t really help improper contact behavior- they just make proper contact behavior easier to achieve! As to the granules, hopefully the contacts will be through shedding soon! perhaps they were incorrectly applied?

    Steve: I’m glad your aussie wasn’t hurt! I agree with you and Stacie. Anything that makes agility safer gets approval in my books!

  7. I put this on a table for our Club, was well received.
    Was at practice a couple days ago on a regular table, and my Aussie landed off-balance and did a face/shoulder plant and slid off; rubber would have made this more gentle. Fortunately, she wasn’t injured – but I’ve seen enough dogs slipping on all contacts that I really think the rubber surfaces should at least be strongly encouraged.

  8. My terrier and I have done 3-4 indoor trials on black rubber mats with new rubberized contacts. Now in addition to all the hairballs and pieces of lint that many terriers chase around the course we have to contend with bits of blue and yellow rubber all over the course. Last trial she was headed past the teeter to the tunnel when she saw the rubber bits and stopped to sniff and graze. No off course, no hands up, just a time loss (this time). I suppose (hope) that the rubber bits will eventually stop falling off and then we’ll be back to just hairballs and lint. We (terrier and I) have been doing non-rubberized contact for 8 years and don’t seem to have any problem with traction or falling off the old surfaces. She flies over the contacts and has more trouble hitting the contacts than hitting her head. The rubber is nice, but it probably won’t stop dogs from falling off. Speed and one paw off the edge are usually the causes, not so much as traction. Rubber can’t hurt, but probably is not going to stop dogs from falling off. However, it might be a bit softer if they stumble, but don’t fall off.

  9. I think it needs to be mandatory to have rubber contacts. Anything that will help keep our dogs safer while we are enjoying agility together gets 2 paws up!

  10. My dog broke her jaw at an agility trial a couple of weeks ago by loosing her footing & hitting her face on the up-side of the dog walk. I am ALL for rubber contacts & would like to see them become manditory.