Monthly Archives: October 2008

How to Make Homemade Agility Jumps (Part Two)

  By Leanne | October 20, 2008 - 12:16 pm | Agility, Reviews
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The part you thought was never coming! The sequel to How to Make Homemade Agility Jumps (Part One). It’s advisable to read that post first.

We added a second diagonal strut a week later, for both aesthetic and practical reasons. The original was sturdy but we thought it could be sturdier, which is what the second support offers. We also added a bar at the bottom as a foot to stop the jump falling over in a light breeze. The bar is 35cm long and is made of the same 3.5 x 2.5 wood as the base.

Check out the paintwork! We went with black and pink paint because a) they look fantastic together, b) it’s unique, no-one else has black and pink equipment, and c) black and bright pink were the colours most likely to freak the dogs out. And if they can handle black and pink, they can handle any other colour that crops up on the circuit (or so is the theory).

We used a gloss wood paint for the black and a special brew* for the pink. Only one coat was necessary for both colours, and both were applied directly to the wood without a primer. We painted every square inch of wood that was accessable. The jumps have been living outside since they were painted a few weeks ago and are showing no ill-effects. One and a half small 250ml pots of gloss black were used for 9 jumps (18 wings), and approx 250ml’s of pink for the same. We had one small hiccup in that the gloss paint took over 2 weeks to dry completely; it remained slightly tacky in the underside corners and joints between the wood. Although we painted on a warm and sunny day in late September, the following days and weeks were somewhat damp and cold which probably prevented the paint from drying as quickly as it could.

*The pink paint was mixed by a talented friend out of some colours she had at home. Unfortunately I don’t know exactly what went in the pot but it looks awesome.

The jump cups arrived and got screwed in a long time ago. I’d definitely recommend these jump cups to anyone attempting to make their own equipment, they’re relatively cheap and a lot easier than attempting to make the cups yourself. They’re also very easy to attach and very durable. They look quite shallow but our poles fit comfortably in them and none of our dogs have poles down any more than you would usually expect.

The cups are attached at the standard Kennel Club heights.

Flyball Training (Video)

  By Leanne | October 18, 2008 - 5:56 pm | Dylan, Flyball, Videos
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A video, finally! Just a short series of clips from Dylan at training this morning. He’s really only cruising here, as we were mainly working on getting him used to running as a mid-pack dog and having dogs changing into him both ways for Rotherham next weekend.

Click here to see a short video of Dylan flyballing.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get some videos of him at Rotherham where he might hit something near top gear!

Training Thoughts

  By Leanne | October 16, 2008 - 12:27 pm | Agility, Dylan, Kim
6 Comments

I get such a kick out of running with Kim, we miss all our contacts and get everything wrong but it’s just fab, I love it.

She has freaked herself out badly on our seesaw though, she had a crazy fly-off last week on her first run and then was a little cautious for the rest of the session but nothing I was too concerned about. She’s had fly-offs before (they used to be a regular occurance when she was younger) and they’ve never bothered her too much. However, she obviously remembered this time because this week she was really worried about it, if I wasn’t right next to her she refused every time. That improved towards the end of the evening, and thankfully Dylan seems to have got over his super-scary see-saw mindset so at least I only have one dog to worry about.

Our next competition is EMDAC at the end of November so we have plenty of time. We’ve sorted Dylan on the dogwalk and the seesaw, just the creeping Aframe to tackle now. We did a bit of work on it but then the various other issues surfaced, and so I’ve held off working on the Aframe until the other contact stuff was improved. It’s definitely something we need to work on before EMDAC though … plus weave entries, my timing for cues (especially tight turns), and a list of other stuff.

The weird thing is that although Dylan has this whole bunch of stuff to work on, it’s nothing compared to all the things that Kim can’t do. Kim and I get by because we have a great partnership and a lot of ring experience, but Dylan has 18 months of foundation work behind him which makes such a difference. He can do much more complicated sequences and courses; he can do perfect flick-flacks and we haven’t even trained them specifically, he just has great directional commands, whereas Kim still has issues with flick-flacks if I’m not stood in the right spot. I’m very pleased all the work we did paid off, and that my training has improved in that I could see what Kim was lacking and did everything I could to combat that. But I am kind of sad that Kim didn’t get the foundation, because with it she would have been twice as awesome as she is now. In some ways I wish I had got Kim 10 years into the future, but I know if I had, I wouldn’t have learnt all the things I have and am doing with her.

We still have a lot of fun, and she’s still awesome.

P.S. Thanks for the vetrap help guys! I think I’ve found somewhere relatively cheap so hopefully Kim will be all wrapped up for Rotherham in 2 weeks.