RC - The Beat Goes On

So Tibby is doing really, really well with the RC.  We were having a ton of misses, so I took a few days off.  Then the Tibb-ster started begging to do the plank (she really likes it), so we tried again.  I did a couple thinking that we would have the same old problem - but she was perfect!  So I grabbed the camera and filmed our session.  ALL JACKPOTS!!! Plus Full Speed!

Ok on to the nity-grity.  Silvia said the LAST one was the best.  So I had to have her explain a little, because I didn't understand why???

She said, "the best tries are “safe” tries. That last try was safe because if her stride was somewhat longer, she would still hit with front feet and if it was somewhat shorter, she would hit with hind feet. In most other tries, if her stride was somewhat shorter, she would miss it (especially on a shorter contact – I think yours is AKC length?). From the same reason, very low front foot only hits are not so good: a little longer stride and it’s a miss."

I can understand this. 

However, then couldn't I just change the length of the board to get perfect hits every time?  I asked this question.....just waiting for Silvia's response.  Shouldn't take too long - she responds really fast.

Oh yeah and the board is at 6 inches.  I think the hardest part for Tibby to get was: run full speed, but now (I think/hope) she gets it.  Also, she has learned to fetch!  Thank you running contacts for teaching my dog to fetch. 
(sometimes Tibby wants to see if she really has to bring the ball all the way back - yes, yes you do)

EDITED TO ADD: Silvia said, "actually, if your board was shorter, she would have deeper hits… And longer board would give you misses. The striding gets very predictable once you raise the board as raising it creates a kind of a stride regulator (the dog has to hit it with front feet first, always), so yes, using a shorter or a longer board can produce you hits, but of course, at that point or another, they need to be able to hit it no matter what, so after the helping phase, there must come challenges too."

I was (am?) confused about the stride thing.  Also, we were rewarding for front feet hits AND rear feet hits, so the dogs would realized that sometimes they can use front feet too - if it works better.  I think that confused me.