The Contactacoat Story
By Lyn Sayers
My early attempts at Agility weren't a huge success but Jasper loved it and I quickly became addicted. A year or two into the sport we were competing in Porirua and Jasper mucked up his approach to the A Frame. After desperately trying to scramble to the top he eventually lost traction and slid backwards to the ground, friction burning his paws on the marine carpet in the process.
The discovery of a rubber chip coating for agility ramps happened as something of an accident. My second Schnauzer, Jenna, had been invited to feature in an episode of Tux Wonderdogs, which was being filmed in and around South Canterbury. Quite by chance, I learned of a Butcher in Geraldine who had a dangerous and slippery angled step from the pavement into his shop. Somehow he had stumbled across a fellow who offered to cover the step with chipped car tyres embedded in a resin.
How I came to make the association with Agility may have something to do with Jasper's experience some years before but whatever the reason, I was now on a mission. So began a series of experiments, numerous phone calls and endless e-mails to find appropriate raw materials.
Ultimately, I found a source of coloured rubber chip and someone who was prepared to break a bulk container and decant off some resin from a 210 litre drum. Following a series of experiments, I perfected a method of applying the resin and sprinkling the chip in appropriate proportions that ensured a high degree of traction under the dog’s feet without the weight of coating making the equipment too heavy to carry.
By April 2005 I had covered my somewhat rickety Dog Walk and had it up on top of the Motorhome and on my way to Rotorua. Early potential customers were somewhat put off by the unstable nature of the Dog Walk legs but there were sufficient folk that could see past that and were interested to conduct some experiments.
Almost exactly a year later I was asked to organize the Agility section of the Northern Classic in Taupo and I was able to convince enough "rubber evangelists" to loan their clubs gear so that all four competing rings and the practise ring had Contactacoat surfaces. That was something of a watershed for the product and, as various clubs decided their gear needed recovering, a high proportion of them were converting to the chip product.
Another year on and I was contacted by one of the ladies from the US team that had just come back from Europe after competing at the FCI Agility World Championship. She had learned of some experimental coatings being used there and had been given my name. Daisy Peel distributed the product in the USA and Canada for a number of years but now prefers to spend her time coaching. Following my attendance at the Australian Nationals in Adelaide a month later, arranged for the same to happen there.
In 2009 an English Judge was contracted to officiate at our National event and he was so impressed with the product he started selling Contactacoat in the U.K. and Europe.
Today the Contactacoat Rubber Chip system is widely accepted in New Zealand and around the world.
By Lyn Sayers
My early attempts at Agility weren't a huge success but Jasper loved it and I quickly became addicted. A year or two into the sport we were competing in Porirua and Jasper mucked up his approach to the A Frame. After desperately trying to scramble to the top he eventually lost traction and slid backwards to the ground, friction burning his paws on the marine carpet in the process.
The discovery of a rubber chip coating for agility ramps happened as something of an accident. My second Schnauzer, Jenna, had been invited to feature in an episode of Tux Wonderdogs, which was being filmed in and around South Canterbury. Quite by chance, I learned of a Butcher in Geraldine who had a dangerous and slippery angled step from the pavement into his shop. Somehow he had stumbled across a fellow who offered to cover the step with chipped car tyres embedded in a resin.
How I came to make the association with Agility may have something to do with Jasper's experience some years before but whatever the reason, I was now on a mission. So began a series of experiments, numerous phone calls and endless e-mails to find appropriate raw materials.
Ultimately, I found a source of coloured rubber chip and someone who was prepared to break a bulk container and decant off some resin from a 210 litre drum. Following a series of experiments, I perfected a method of applying the resin and sprinkling the chip in appropriate proportions that ensured a high degree of traction under the dog’s feet without the weight of coating making the equipment too heavy to carry.
By April 2005 I had covered my somewhat rickety Dog Walk and had it up on top of the Motorhome and on my way to Rotorua. Early potential customers were somewhat put off by the unstable nature of the Dog Walk legs but there were sufficient folk that could see past that and were interested to conduct some experiments.
Almost exactly a year later I was asked to organize the Agility section of the Northern Classic in Taupo and I was able to convince enough "rubber evangelists" to loan their clubs gear so that all four competing rings and the practise ring had Contactacoat surfaces. That was something of a watershed for the product and, as various clubs decided their gear needed recovering, a high proportion of them were converting to the chip product.
Another year on and I was contacted by one of the ladies from the US team that had just come back from Europe after competing at the FCI Agility World Championship. She had learned of some experimental coatings being used there and had been given my name. Daisy Peel distributed the product in the USA and Canada for a number of years but now prefers to spend her time coaching. Following my attendance at the Australian Nationals in Adelaide a month later, arranged for the same to happen there.
In 2009 an English Judge was contracted to officiate at our National event and he was so impressed with the product he started selling Contactacoat in the U.K. and Europe.
Today the Contactacoat Rubber Chip system is widely accepted in New Zealand and around the world.