Best starter agility kit?

[Melissa_W]

Hey guys! We just started agility classes and I love it. I would love to get some equipment so that we can practice at home. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I'm also semi-open to building my own equipment, does anyone have any experience with that?

Thanks!

[bcmoffatt]

I've built a bunch of equipment for home practice. I found it to be quite easy!

[MafiaPrincess]

I took a set of classes. Went home and worked for a while. I bought a small dacron tunnel, then made a pause table, 2 jumps, hoop, teeter and stick in the ground weaves.

I'd like to buy 2 x 2 weaves now though.. Seems it's not the same without bases. Something about crossing over the base is different so while she understands the concept it's not the same home to school.

Neighbours think I'm a freak. Thought I was a bigger freak when I pointed out I'd made my equipment..

[Melissa_W]

Did you guys reference any websites when making your equipment?

[MafiaPrincess]

I googled jumps, and then modifyed one I saw that I liked the best. http://www.dogbegood.com/equipment.html

I did look at varying teeter bases, in the end I created my own though. I did screw up on my pause table. It's 16 inches tall, as I read the AAC standard incorrectly. But it hasn't hindered our performance at all playing on it here, and a proper height one at class and trials.

[adojrts]

There are several places on the net to find this. You can also check out www.cleanrun.com lots of info and products there.
I would stay away from the Agility Starter Kits that some stores sell or can be purchased on line.
One of my students was all excited when she told me that she had ordered it. (If she had asked before purchasing....) It was a huge waste of money, bye bye 50 bucks.
It is easy to build wooden standards (jumps) and use pvc bars, or you can build pvc jumps, bars and standards. Tire jump is also easy to build, you can use sawhorses as a base for a lowered DW, but make sure for any contact equipment that you put enough 'grip' on it. Slippery contact E. results in slow dogs and its not safe.
Grip - first coat of paint (along with the contact zones), dry, then paint again and add Sandblasting Sand (about $3-5.00), cover with the sand and let dry for a few days, then sweep off the excess and paint again. Gives an awesome surface for the contact equipment and if you can keep snow off the equipment in the winter, it should last several years of regular use.

Lynn

[BostonBanker]

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j201/BostonBanker525/tirejump001sm.jpg

That's the only equipment I've built so far. I measured the one at the agility field, and used a picture I found online to help me figure out what to make it out of.

A mini-dogwalk is my next project.

[Melissa_W]

That looks awesome, BB!

[Beanie]

I've made two jumps, a tire jump, a set of straight weave poles, I need to cut out a base to attach my adjustable weave poles to, and an A-Frame. I bought a 6 ft tunnel cheap at Target and parachute material at Hancock Fabrics to make my own chute.
I have another 6 ft tunnel we've used since Auggie was a puppy, but I splurged many months ago and ordered a 15 foot tunnel from RocketTunnels (I think?) I am really really glad I got that 15 ft tunnel... it was a great buy.

There's a book by Jane Simmons-Moake - it's a big blue one, and it's the one not part of her series... I think it's just "Agility Training." Anyway, at the end of that book is a TON of instructions on how to build your own equipment. You might find it really handy. => Just pay attention to what you're building though, because the instructions don't seem to follow the current AKC equipment specs.

[Melissa_W]

Thanks Beanie!

[Lizmo]

A mini-dogwalk is my next project.

Ah, when you do that, let me know :D

[BostonBanker]

Ah, when you do that, let me know

Wanna come up to Vermont for a building party?

I've got to figure something out for building a contact trainer. After watching Meg leap over both the dogwalk and the a-frame contacts yesterday, I'm calling off my last two planned trials for the year, and am devoting this winter to getting reliable contacts.

[AgilityPup]

My mom and Dad made me, Weaves (2x2s that connect after so I can have both 2x2s and straight weaves), and 2 jumps. I'm trying to get a Teeter and a Dog Walk right now, as those seem to really throw Zoey off of her focas..


I suggest googleing "how to make Agility equipment" and going from there...

Good luck!

[Beanie]

I've got to figure something out for building a contact trainer. After watching Meg leap over both the dogwalk and the a-frame contacts yesterday, I'm calling off my last two planned trials for the year, and am devoting this winter to getting reliable contacts.

Try maybe cutting a hula hoop in half and then staking it in the ground at the end of the a-frame? This worked for Auggie - he couldn't hop off because the hoop was in the way, so he was forced to have to run all the way to the bottom.
We trained for a 2o2o with steps and everything, and he'll still do it, but for some annoying reason he just won't slow down enough to do it on the equipment =P If I try really really hard I might be able to get it on the teeter since he's already going slow, but that's it. Buh.

[MafiaPrincess]

I train 2o2o contacts backwards.. Dog stands in position I want at the end c and t. Pick dog up a foot back on the obstacle call out the word I attached to 2o2o.. dog hits it, c ant t. Move back further and further till they are doing the entire down side of obstacle, call it out c and t. Do it more get some distance on it so you aren't hovering, c and t.

Praying the dog will guess what you want them to do and slow down on their own is setting a dog up for failure. Sadly till this summer, I didn't know any better. I've back chained the entire movement, and have pretty nice dog walk and teeter contacts. She has a beautiful one from the top of the frame, but it still needs work as she bowls down it too fast as a full obstacle, hits the ground and offers me the nose touch. If your dog doesn't do it because they are 'too fast' they don't know the job you would like them to perform. and that job should be a clear cut picture in your mind. Not 2 paws here and 2 paws there, but what is the rest of their body doing.

[milos_mommy]

Since we've started, i always teach a pause at the end of a contact. Not a PAUSE necessarily...just a little slower at the end. And i tend to target the bottom of a contact so they automatically nose/paw it.

[BostonBanker]

I've really tried to avoid teaching Meg the 2 on/2 off contact. She's built pretty horribly for it; heavy in front, high behind, and with a straight shoulder, plus she has an old elbow injury. I won't use a hoop or anything like that (I know some people who use jump bars) because of Meg's tendency to panic if she gets scared. I could just see her knocking into the hoop and deciding she will never go near a piece of contact equipment again. My little drama queen.

Actually, I really wasn't teaching much of anything for a contact. Meg was extremely slow and cautious at first, and it seemed likely we'd get away with handler assisted "running" contacts. There was absolutely no reason to think she would ever be the "run full-out and fly off the obstacle" type of dog, until she suddenly discovered her drive this summer.

Anyway, the current plan is to teach a variation of four on the floor (apparently some judges are disqualifying dogs who do a down?) with her in a stand. A trainer I know teaches that to all her long backed dogs like corgis, and has had great luck with it. Now it's just a matter of actually doing the training;) .

[Dekka]

Why would a down be a DQ? What venue would that be?

For tunnels I like NTI tunnels. http://www.ntiglobal.com/dogagility/cart.php?page=_

My hubby is making me new aluminum equip :D

[BostonBanker]

Why would a down be a DQ? What venue would that be?

I think it was USDAA - I'll have to go back through my emails. Apparently some judges are considering it "training in the ring".

Edit- Yup, just checked. This was a quote from a different list:

I can verify that there are judges that won't allow a down and I think
that it is very unfair. I was at a USDAA trial last weekend and the
judge for the Starters Novice class announced at her briefing that if
you downed the dog anywhere on the course, she would assume you were
training and thus you would be immediately leaving the ring.

[Beanie]

Wait... so for pause tables you'd only do a sit? No downs on pause tables either I'd guess?

I'm confused on how asking for a down is considered "training"... weird!

[MafiaPrincess]

USDAA can be pretty strict on their rules.. I was told a month ago by my trainer when I'd asked something else.. that someone big in the AAC agility community went stateside to play USDAA a year or so ago. Dog Missed their usual contact I think it was a rear foot on the contact zone, she looked at the dog before continuing to run, and the dog placed its own back foot on to 'correct' the error..

She was eliminated that moment from the ring for 'training'. She didn't DO anything.. She was eliminated not just that run and asked to leave the grounds, not just that day, she was kicked out for the weekend.. As they so do not allow training in the ring. She was in tears.. Awfully long way to go to be kicked out for the weekend.. Judge was excessively harsh to apparently 'make a point'.

She has gone back and played with them again as she qualified for the Arizona USDAA nationals.. But this story has stuck with me as uber as bad as it can get..

[agilityretrievers]

I think they mean that they don't want you telling the dog to down as a correction for a missed contact or something. If your dog just runs down the contact, lies down, and you release in a couple seconds, there should be no problem with that. Many dogs lie down in four-on-the-floor and I have even seen people put the dog in a down for a few seconds during a Snooker run without getting any problems.

It is also against the rules to cue your dog back onto the contact after they miss it, and if she was pointedly stopping and looking at her dog, I can see how the judge would interpret that as cueing the dog to get back on (I can get Boo to sit, down, or do 2o2o by looking at him). But it is unusual to kick her out for the entire weekend, I've only seen people get whistled off that run.