Happy Holidays, Everyone!
Just wanted to say a Happy Holidays to everyone.
Roger has been swamped with work and has not been able to work on agility stuff for us lately. I am trying to encourage him to do a dogwalk or an a-frame next.
I think he is considering the dogwalk closely but is having trouble coming up with a design that would eliminate any gaps in the areas where the boards would meet. I have insisted that there be no gaps, because my dogs manage to find any flaw and stick their toes into it. Then we have a Sports Injury and must go to the Veterinarian for an Examination and Medication. Then, the worst part, the Injured Party must *Rest* for at least a week. Needless to say, this resting stuff does not go over well with my border collies.
This same issue with gaps will also come up with the a-frame, at the top where the boards meet. I was thinking that there could be little pieces that you set into place in these gap areas when the obstacle is set up, and then you could remove these when you go to take it down to move it or whatever. But how to secure them?? Perhaps a little T shape, and the top of the T has paint or nonskid stuff on it like the rest of the walking surface. They might be something you have to secure with a screw and bolt on the other side. If anyone has any ideas for this, please share them here. The obstacle needs to be safe, with no gaps for dog toes to get stuck. The nature of the PVC pipes and boards is such that the boards will not meet up exactly and touch each other, and that is the main problem here.
Meanwhile, I will try to bribe Roger with chocolate to get him working on more obstacles for us. 
Tunnels & Chutes
We won’t be building tunnels or chutes here at Instant Agility.Here then are the results of my researching in looking for the least expensive:
Affordable Agility (affordableagility.com) has tunnels, barrels, and chutes. Their competition-quality items are the cheapest I have found on the internet. They also have “practice” versions, which are not as sturdy. I believe they sell the chutes and the barrels as separate items, so be sure you are ordering all the pieces that you need. Practice tunnel ($55-160), Competition tunnel ($150-$245), Practice chute/barrel combo ($95), Competition chute only (+/-$100), Competition “budget” barrel only ($45).
Broad Jump
The broad jump will give your dog an opportunity to jump a distance horizontally rather than the vertical challenge offered by normal hurdles, as Kipp shows us above. We’ve created a jump with lower boards at either end with a raised center (this allows us to run the dogs in either direction over the jump), but you can put it together so it is approached from one side, with ascending boards the entire way; you can also space the boards differently (see design notes at end of article). Assembling a jump like we’ve built here will take three to four hours and will cost about $50.
Adjustable “Channel” Weave Poles
Weave poles are great fun for your dog (as Tess demonstrates), but they do take a bit of training. These adjustable poles make that training easy–start with them open, allowing your dog to run down the center “channel,” and slowly narrow that over time until your dog is weaving through the poles. We are going to make a set of six poles; this will take about three to four hours and will cost about $28 for materials.
Obstacle Training: Weave poles
There are lots of ways to train the weave poles. What we have here are channel weaves. You start out with the weaves wide open and run the dog down the middle. Then you gradually close them until eventually your dog is doing them all lined up.
You will want to take a few weeks to do close them down, practicing a bit each day. Start with six poles and then add two poles as your dog has mastered each set. Go from 6 to 8 to 10, etc.
If you find your dog stopping before the last pole to look back at you or to run to the next obstacle, try throwing a toy or a treat past the last pole on the side they should come out on–they will be focused on that and go all the way through.
If your dog makes a mistake or misses a pole, this just means you went a bit too fast. You can go back and make it easier by opening the weaves up a bit again, then try again to close them some.
Previous Articles
Welcome to Instant Agility
Learn how to build inexpensive but sturdy agility equipment that will give you and your dog hours of fun--and then learn how to put the equipment to use.
We hope to put up a new obstacle or training piece fairly frequently.
