2x2 weave equipment

[Catsi]

I'm aiming to teach my Abby the 2x2 weave method. How important is it that the equipment is proper 2x2 weaves? I am considering having a cheap, stick in the ground type setup, and just setting them up as 2x2s. I don't want to bother with this if it will effect our training, I'd rather save up and buy the weave poles. Any thoughts? We don't compete, but I am still aiming to train it well. Also, thoughts on weave pole measurements.

Also, if you have two organisations running agility comps and one has a longer gap between poles, is it easier for a dog to learn the smallest one and then transfer over. My thoughts are that it would be easier for them to increase the distance, rather than decrease, but I could be wrong. Again, it doesn't matter as we don't compete, but I'm curious and it's helpful to know in the future. TIA.

 

[MafiaPrincess]

You could use stick in the ground poles. Could be a pain as you need to move them a decent amount. Depends how soft your ground is. I have clay soil and it didn't work well. I also cheaped out and used fence stakes with my pvc, and I couldn't get the stakes in far enough so they had sharp dangerous edges.

Weave pole measurements being how tall should the poles be, or spacing. If you mean spacing it's venue specific. You'd need to pick a venue and use their spacing.

Small gap to larger is fine, but after running a larger spacing it's hard to go back to smaller.

 

[Shai]

You don't need any particular type of base...stick in the ground is fine as long as you check your spacing. I used 3-pole bases since that's what I had, and just put two poles on it instead of all three...no problem. Could also make cheap-o PVC bases if so inclined.

Regarding the spacing, I can't really say which is easier, but I have a 24" jumping dog and a 16" jumping dog that both learned 22" weave pole spacing initially. Switching two 24" spacing with the new rules was quite painless. Logically I would think, like MafiaPrincess, that narrow -> wider would be the easier transition.

 

[MafiaPrincess]

Our primary venue is AAC. When we started they were 21". They moved just under a year ago to 24". I had 21" 2x2s and Dekka's hubby cut them and re-welded them to 24" for me.

CPE is our screw around just for fun venue and as of last month also went to 24" only. AKC as of January next year is apparently also moving to 24" only as well.

 

[Raegan]

I made mine at 24" since that seemed to be the most common/the trend in what venues were changing to.

Using just the connectors you can get at the hardware store is a little inelegant. If you can get the ones for furniture you can get the bases to be right under the pole, but since I could only get T's I had to offset them. But with these I can adjust the angle of each set of two, easily change the distance between and two sets, and keep the poles more or less straight if I need to. Plus I never need to measure anything, since the poles are always the same distance and I have premade connectors to make longer strings when I get there. Easy to transport and set up. I like em.

Total cost was under $20.

 

[Shai]

AKC as of January next year is apparently also moving to 24" only as well.

AKC is effectively 24" only now, at least in most areas. Any trial that announced they had something other than 24" weaves (which would be in the premium) would be shunned.

 

[Catsi]

Thanks for your replies guys. It has helped me decide that I'll just go with the stake in the ground type set up and see how we go. Looking forward to this!