Your teeter base is cool! You built that? Did you follow any plans? Mind sharing if you did? LOL I keep meaning to build a teeter base, just haven't gotten around to it yet, mostly because I can't totally decide the best way to do it. I saw some welded metal ones for sale at Louisville but they were over a hundred bucks and I just couldn't drop that much on one!
Those "guides" for your weaves look sorta dangerous with those pieces that are supposed to interlock onto the next piece of fencing sticking out. Not only could she poke herself or an eye with them but they're pushing her out and forcing her to have a less than tight weave. I'm not a huge fan of using guides for weaves anyway, but I would grab a pair of wire cutters and snip those off. You probably want to find a way for your bars on the jumps to displace, too, should she crash into it.
I was so confused by the bolded part, until I looked at the picture above. It really does look like they're sticking out! In truth, they're flush with the poles, it's just a really awkward angle in the picture.
I'm indifferent to the methods of teaching weaves. They all work, and through research I really don't think any are "better" than the others. I know everyone's pretty opinionated on it, but guides are the way we practice in class, so it's the way I've done it at home too, just to keep consistency. Sometimes I'll mix it up and use channels to increase speed, but the guides have worked really well for her. She can do 12 in a row perfectly once she's focused...we just have to get her focus together!
And yup, we built the base. There's a yahoo agility plans group that has a great database of plans for the different objects. (
agility-equipment : This list is for the exchange of ideas regarding construction of dog agility equipment) I based this off of a picture someone had posted. There were no actual plans, but it was easy enough to decipher. It cost about $50 to build (including the board and paint) when all was said and done--much better than what I could find online! I need to glue it together in some way though. The rocking of the teeter causes it to come apart after using it repeatedly.
I know I should make the jumps separate...
Buttttt...this works, for now. She hasn't knocked a bar since our 2nd week of classes a year ago (seriously, not exaggerating there), so jumps aren't my concern at the moment. I probably just jinxed it and she'll knock every bar this week...