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.
Footwork Ladder with Side Rails
This ladder is useful for teaching your dog to mind their back feet–and is a fun obstacle in-and-of-itself. You can build it with or without side rails (which are helpful if your dog is what is technically known as a “cheater pants”). With side rails as shown, the ladder will take about three to four hours to build and cost about $30 for the materials.
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.
