Instant Agility

Let’s have a vote. Which would you like to see next? I think Roger has worked quite a bit on dogwalk plans on paper. There is no guarantee that what you vote for will guide the next set of instructions, but we are curious to know which has the most demand.

Related posts: Bar Jump or Hurdle; Adjustable Jump Cups. PAPER BINDER CLIPS: (Pam) One of my favorite ‘jump cups’ for home use are paper binder clips. Just go into an office supply store and purchase binder clips for paper. I put the plastic part around the pvc upright and the metal part straight in front [...]

I thought that with everyone out there building these nifty things, you might want to share some photos, especially if you had ideas to share with the other folks using these instructions. If you want to do this, you can email the pictures to me and I will choose some (or all) to share here. [...]

Roger hopes to do a dogwalk next, but it is very miserable with rain, etc. outside on the porch and in the yard where he builds stuff just now.  We will be moving — soon, we hope — to a place with some kind of shop building and garage. In the meantime, please continue to [...]

Just wanted to say a Happy Holidays to everyone. Roger has been swamped with work and has not been able to work on agility stuff for us lately. I am trying to encourage him to do a dogwalk or an a-frame next. I think he is considering the dogwalk closely but is having trouble coming [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The ladder is useful for teaching your dog to notice where they are putting their back feet. This is good to do before they get on the dogwalk or teeter. To get your dog to go over the ladder, just drop treats between the rungs. My dogs, after a few trips through with treats, run [...]

This is the easiest of all obstacles to train. You just put your dog on leash and lead them over, then reward. A piece of cake! Here are tips from Tess & Kipp: Start low, so your dog does not cheat and go under it. Use a variety of things as jumps, so that nothing [...]

Having Fun with Agility by Margaret H. Bonham This book explains how to teach your dog the obstacles and handling. It is meant for fun (which is what we do here), and provides some fun ideas for simple courses in the yard that include things other than regulation agility equipment (Tess loves the wading pool [...]