Are you sick of running contacts, yet? So sad, too bad.

I borrowed my friend's "hit-it" board. It is a 1x1 foot electronic pad that beeps an obnoxious peep when pressed. It's kind of cool because it is electronic, but no plug, no apparent place to replace batteries? But, it beeps when hit. Roscoe doesn't have enough weight to trigger it, which is OK because he HATES it because the beep sounds like our smoke detector reminding us it needs a new battery or when the power goes out telling us it is working. He HATES that sound and will shiver and shake when it goes off. I kind of thought I could train a pleasant (treat) association to the beep, but he kept avoiding it and since Roscoe's contacts are AWESOME and perfect, I don't need to do that work with him.

With Spur, it might be helpful. However, at the speed he goes sometimes I think a 1x1 spot might be hard to hit? I mean, really, in this shot his next step will be back feet hitting the top 1/3 of the contact. How the heck? Can I train him to adjust and hit another spot with his front feet? Maybe. I am going to play with it some and see what happens. I now have speed on the dog walk, but I need clear, uncloudy performance. I need him to KNOW that hitting the yellow zone is acceptable and any other option is OUT! That all without stressing him out or making him wring his little papillon paws in worry. Can I do that? I don't know.
Remember my home made hit-it board? It was simply too hard to deal with and I never did get it clear. Clear as mud, but not clear as clear. This electronic board can be used and trained anywhere.
One thing I know for sure.........this sort of training is going to take patience and TIME. Lots and lots of time.
Should I swap to a 2o2o performance? I am still not convinced. I personally do not like that performance. I see too many dogs going slower and slower and creeping and worrying about their 2o2o performance.
I don't think there is a good answer, yet. Someone may come up with one, but right now, nothing clear as clear. Every option I see trained is clear as mud, more often then not. World team members have fabulous runs and are called for awesome contacts. It happens. Percentage wise, I saw perhaps half of the Nationals runs called for contacts. Nothing else, just contacts. So, training a good contact is essential. Harder than training anything else, I think. At least for me.