We have mailed off our forms for our Expert Trick Dog titles.  Who knew all the border collie brain games would come with TITLES! I didn’t know it was possible to get titles for shy dogs who can’t handle crowds! How awesome. And WOW! We know over 40 tricks!

My parents were hugely impressed when we demonstrated about 35 tricks for them. They had no idea what all they knew.  Even Roger was impressed with the double hoop trick, and he sees them do crazy stuff all day. I highly recommend these books by Kyra Sundance. I’m merely a fan and we get nothing in exchange for mentioning these books or this program here.

What I love best about Kyra Sundance is how she just wants you and your dog to do fun stuff together – whatever fun stuff YOU want to do. The best advice I’ve ever received was about how to make use of advice you get from other people — take what you can use, and throw the rest away. This is really what she teaches in her books. What is fun for YOU and YOUR DOG is what is important – not what other people think you need to do.

Even with my dogs’ limitations (mostly mine – we don’t want our dogs getting into the fridge or turning on all the lights ), we have learned a bunch of cool things over the years. And all this with lure/reward training. Go lure/reward! Fun training without that awful clicker noise!

I’ m a huge fan of trick training for dogs to keep their brains in shape (and to wear them out!). To us, everything is a trick. And some of the tricks we used for these titles are agility things – the teeter, weave poles, directed jumping, hoop jump, stay/wait, recall, and the tunnel.

Go forth and trick train!

UPDATE on 01/19/2011: Roger’s shop is almost finished! Our yard is fenced. We even have a semi-flat area for agility, though we kind of spread it all along an old driveway. Spring is only a couple months away, though, so he will probably work on garden stuff for me first, then an agility obstacle. I’ll take a final tally here soon and see if I can’t get him to build the thing with the most votes.   Anyone with course ideas for a narrow strip instead of a big square area, please share!

UPDATE ON 10/11/2010: We have moved into the new house but the yard is not yet fenced. This is a big project, and requires Roger to build several gates. Once he is done building the gates, he will be starting on agility obstacles again in his shiny new shop building. Please bear with us while we settle in here.

UPDATE ON 09/24/2010: We are moving pretty soon! Roger will need time to sort out all this stuff, but then he will be working on building new stuff! He also needs to fix my table, which was damaged in a windstorm and he may do a post on that, too.

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.

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 to hold the bar. What size clips you use will depend upon the size of your pvc.
VELCRO: (Pam) I’ve also seen people put the loop part of sticky Velcro (use craft or industrial strength) on the pvc uprights. The hook side is on the bar. This is worth it for a dog who needs to move to height in very slow increments.

Dura 3/4″ Snap Clamp: (Mike)  Save yourself a lot of time. Just google “Dura 3/4″ Snap Clamp” the actual part number you can google as well. That is 463-007. It is the same part number with Dura and Spears. Just cut it in half and snap it on you pvc pipe. One snap clamp makes 2 cups ready to use in about 10 seconds. Cost is about .60 cents for two!

TEE CONNECTOR AND RUBBER BAND: (Andrew Geffert) Try this: Cut a Tee connector in half, and use a rubber band to keep it in place. The Tee connector should be the next size up from your verticle pipe size. If you are working with 1/2″ PVC, us a 3/4″ Tee connector. The next bigger size will slip over uprights. To get it to stay, first put a rubber band around the upright so the half tee rests around the rubber band. The half round will then hold the cross bar.

BUY ONLINE: (Carol) Try this site for the saddle clips:  http://www.flexpvc.com

SHOWER CURTAIN ROD HOLDER: (Suzanne) I went to Lowes, Valu and Home Depot looking for something that could reasonably substitute for them. A really helpful Home Depot worker helped me discover that 1/2 of a shower curtain rod holder holds 1″ pipe perfectly. I had to purchase 2 for each jump because the other end is a complete circle and I wanted the bar to easily fall away if she hit it while going over.

MYSTERY ITEMS (photo below): (Wendy) I was still able to make the jump cups, but I had to improvise by adding another piece.  I’m not sure what it is called, but here is a picture.  The piece is threaded on one end, which I screwed into the saddle. The other end fits 1″ pipe, so I inserted the “cup” piece of pvc into this end.  It works well, but I ended up having to cut my jump bar a little shorter, so it would fit on the improvised jump cups.

If you have something you used not listed above, please leave a comment!

I would also LOVE to see photos of dogs using these obstacles that you built.

I will do two new pages here at the blog — one for hints and tips, and one for your dogs showing their stuff. 

Please size down your picture a bit before sending it so that it does not blow up my computer. 

Please include a caption for your picture, such as “I used Widget A for a jump cup” or perhaps “Mac loves his weave poles!” so that I have something to put with the photo. I won’t publish any names without permission and email addresses will not be published under any circumstances.

Send your pictures by email to agility (at) weebordercollie.com (you’ll have to copy/paste that and put the little @ symbol in there).

In the meantime, please continue to enjoy the instructions for jumps, weave poles, and pause table.

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 up with a design that would eliminate any gaps in the areas where the boards would meet. I have insisted that there be no gaps, because my dogs manage to find any flaw and stick their toes into it. Then we have a Sports Injury and must go to the Veterinarian for an Examination and Medication. Then, the worst part, the Injured Party must *Rest* for at least a week. Needless to say, this resting stuff does not go over well with my border collies.

This same issue with gaps will also come up with the a-frame, at the top where the boards meet. I was thinking that there could be little pieces that you set into place in these gap areas when the obstacle is set up, and then you could remove these when you go to take it down to move it or whatever. But how to secure them?? Perhaps a little T shape, and the top of the T has paint or nonskid stuff on it like the rest of the walking surface. They might be something you have to secure with a screw and bolt on the other side.  If anyone has any ideas for this, please share them here. The obstacle needs to be safe, with no gaps for dog toes to get stuck. The nature of the PVC pipes and boards is such that the boards will not meet up exactly and touch each other, and that is the main problem here.

Meanwhile, I will try to bribe Roger with chocolate to get him working on more obstacles for us.

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).

Clean Run: (these are “practice” quality) Pac-n-Go Tunnel ($90), Pac-n-Go Chute ($85), Pac-n-Go set ($230). If you have the book from Clean Run about building agility stuff, they have instructions in there for sewing your own chute–then you’d only have to buy or build a barrel.

I ordered the Pac-n-Go set from Clean Run (cleanrun.com) that included two tunnels and a chute/barrel combination. The price was decent, and the quality is good. I am very happy with those.  I never leave these “practice” items outside when I am not using them.

For training the tunnel, one person holds the leash and the other one goes to the other end of the tunnel and demonstrates they have food, toys, or a game waiting. Very simple. With the chute, you will want to fold the chute part back on itself until you have only a little bit hanging down for the dog to go through. Then you extend this a little bit every time. If you have help, you can have the dog go through the entire thing, but have someone hold it open at the end.  Then after they have the hang of it, you can let them drop the end as the dog is about a foot from the end. Then you can do it as they are 2 feet from the end, etc.

These things are quite hilarious to try to teach if you are all alone, as I am. Roger is the builder in the family and definitely NOT a dog trainer. For the tunnel, it was very easy. I threw a ball or a squeaky toy through to the other side and presto! Doggie goes through. For Kipp, I got him to go through one time and now he is a tunnel freak. If there is a tunnel in the yard, Kipp goes through it over and over and over.

For the chute, if you are all alone, you need a very cooperative dog if you do not want to roll the thing up and do it gradually. I stood at the collapsed end and sent Kipp to the barrel part and then called him to me. Kipp turned himself into a sausage encased in chute the first time, but he did manage to come out the right end. Kipp is not so good at continuing in the same direction if he cannot see, kind of like me when I am swimming with my eyes closed. After doing this a couple times, it dawned on me that since I could send him around to the barrel part, I could hold up the chute part for him to see his way through a couple times and then drop it when he got near the end. That worked perfectly. If I am running beside him, I just call “Chute! Chute! Chute!” as he is going through so he can follow my voice and not get turned around. With more practice he probably won’t need the help. If he does still need the help, who cares? We just do this in the backyard… If you are taking class, probably they have a better way.

For Tess and the chute, I had already practiced with Kipp so she got the benefit of being sent to the barrel and being able to see her way through once, then I dropped the end a few times when she was almost out, and then I had her go through on her own and she did great. Now she is a master.

These obstacles, once learned, will probably turn out to be your dog’s favorites. There are no contacts and no possible way to do them wrong–they just go through and that’s it! Piece of cake!

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.

We put on side rails so I can use it as an obstacle even after they pay more attention to where their back feet are. My dogs are more likely to leap over it than go through it without the rails, especially if I send them from a distance.

Here are tips from Tess & Kipp: