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!

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

The pause table is a big challenge for a dog zooming through an agility course. The dog has to climb onto the table and sit or lie down for five seconds, the antithesis to the speed required in the rest of the course. Assembling a pause table like we’ve built here will take four to six hours and will cost about $60 (not including the non-skid surface).

Note: Because your dog will be climbing on this obstacle, the table needs to be sturdy and have a skid-free surface (the table as assembled “in the raw” is very slippery and should not be used until you can put a non-skid surface on it). This is a new obstacle and we’ve only had it in service for a few days as of the published date. The design seems to be solid but keep an eye on your new table!

Tools

You will need a PVC pipe cutter, a sharpie, a measuring tape, a couple of wrenches to fit your bolts (mine were 5/16″), a saw for cutting the plastic boards and sleeve connectors (I used my power miter saw, but a hacksaw or similar will work), and a drill with a 1 3/8″ spade bit and a 3/8″ twist bit for drilling the various holes.

Materials

Below are the pre-cut pipe pieces and connectors (all for 1″ pipe), cut and drilled plastic fence boards, and fasteners, ready to be assembled. The straight pieces of pipe are under 8 feet in total length, which means you’ll need 1 10-foot piece of pipe to construct this pause table. You will also need to buy two 16′ vinyl ranch fence rails and 20 washers, ten bolts and ten nuts. Finally, this obstacle must have a non-skid surface applied…we used a latex paint and sand mixture, but you can use non-skid tape or similar.

Please note that this obstacle can be sized to your dog…if you have a small animal, a smaller table is perfectly acceptible for backyard agility, and if you have a larger animal, make the table larger. You will need to adjust the lengths of your cross-pipes, which are “eye-balled” in any case. You may also need fewer boards, each board adds about 5 1/2 inches in width. Official dimensions are available from various organizations; table height can be anywhere from 8″ to 30″. We kept our table low. If you build a high table, you will want to consider bracing the legs with cross pipes, close to the ground.

Table Top

1 16′ vinyl rance fence 6″ rail, cut into six 3’6″ pieces (2)
2 Straight connectors (couples), cut down to size (4)
3 5/16″ coarse threaded nuts (10)
4 5/16″ x 1″ coarse threaded bolts (10)
5 1 1/4″ diameter washers to fit bolts (20)

Note on the fence rail: The trim aisle at Home Depot has a hand saw for cutting long pieces of trim to length; you will probably want to use this facility to cut the fence rail in half to get it home, as 16′ is pretty hard to handle. When you get the eight foot pieces home, cut them to length; it’s more important to get all six pieces the same length than it is to have them be precisely three foot six inches long.

Legs

1 End Caps (5)
2 T Connectors (2)
3 “X” connector (1)
4 1 3/4″ pipe stubs (2)
5 21-5/8″ pipe cross bars (2)
6 4-3/4″ pipe legs (3)
5 8-1/4″ pipe legs (2)

Note on the cross bars: These should be cut to actual length when it is time to assemble, they may vary a bit depending on your fence rails, hole spacing, etc.

Assembly

Please see the tips page for general hints on cutting and assembling PVC pipe. Look for the red glue symbols in the photos to show the freshly glued joints in each step. Read through all of the steps before starting, later instructions can shed light on what you’re doing and make earlier steps clearer.

The first step is to cut your six boards to length. I’m using my power miter saw (because it’s fast and I have it handy) but you can use a hand saw. For neatness, your boards would ideally be the exact same length, but it’s not a structural concern if they’re not. You will be making two end boards and four filler boards, which differ only in the holes that are drilled into them.

All boards have 3/8″ holes drilled into their sides about 2″ from either end, centered vertically (3/4″ from the board top or bottom edge). The end boards only have these holes on one side, as they only attach to one other board. In all, you will be drilling 20 of these holes. The further towards the center of the table these holes are, the stronger the table, but I found 2″ from the end was as far as I could go and still be able to reach the holes with fingers and wrenches from inside the board, and that was just barely. 1-1/2″ in would have made the table top much easier to assemble.

In the two end boards, you will be drilling a 1 3/8″ diameter hole centered on the width of the board, with the hole center 2″ from the end. I used a spade bit, which, as you can see, produced a ragged hole. A forstner bit almost certainly would have done a cleaner job, but I didn’t have one and they’re quite pricey at this size, at least $20. If you place a snug-fitting block of wood into the board, you may find the spade bit does a better job (though not much!). A hole saw might be a good alternative.

We will eventually be placing a “socket” inside the board to hold the leg, so having a slightly rough hole is OK. The one key is that the hole must be a bit larger than the pipe but smaller than the outside diameter of the socket.

The legs will be held in place by these sockets, which are created by cutting down a straight-through sleeve connector. You want these to be a nice snug fit in the board. Mine were just over 1 3/8″ deep. You can cut a test length of regular pipe to get the depth right, and then transfer that measurement to the socket.

Here is how I cut my sockets using my miter saw. I have the uncut sleeve connector on a piece of pipe, with a scrap on the other end to keep it level. I’m approaching the blade from this side as the fence on my saw won’t support the short sleeve due to the cutout you can see to the left of the blade. Take things slowly and be careful. A hack saw or similar will obviously work, though you should make sure your cut is as close to 90 degrees as you can be.

Here is the full set of boards, sockets, and hardware, ready to be assembled. Be sure that any mounting tabs on your fence rails are on the underside of the table–you can see tabs in this photo on the close end of the three center boards nearest the camera.

The table boards will be assembled with glue along their mating edges with the bolts, nuts and washers taking up most of the load. Before applying any glue, make sure that a bolt will pass through the holes in the chosen boards without messing up the alignment (boards should match end-to-end and vertically, up-and-down). If they don’t match exactly, use your 3/8″ drill to enlarge one of the holes in the right direction. The size of the holes is not critical for structural strength. Dry fit the two boards together with bolts and washers to test their fit before gluing.

Before gluing, I ran a piece of sandpaper down the board edges to take a bit of the gloss off, the theory being that the glue may have a better “bite.” I have no idea if my theory is sound, but the effort was minimal.

The bolt, nut and washers that are used for each connection. Note that once you apply glue, you’ll need to do one of two things: either firmly hold the glued joint along its length for a couple of minutes and then add the bolts to the dried assembly, or use the bolts as clamps to get a tight glue joint. The latter requires you to move quite quickly as the glue sets rapidly. (I think the ideal solution would be to use pipe clamps to hold the boards, bolting once the glue was dry.) I opted for the rapid bolt method. If I was to do it again I would use pipe clamps, it’s a lot less stressful and would lead to better glue joints.

The bolts and washers are strong enough on their own to support the weight of a dog on the table. The glue helps, but mostly makes the table more rigid.

Because the holes were at the very limits of where my finger could get to, I resorted to using a cone of masking tape, sticky-side out, to help me get the bolt and washer started. On the washer and nut side, I found that I could just get the nut started with a bit of luck. Practice first if you’re going to be gluing and immediately bolting!

Here is the finished joint, glued and bolted. You can see that the washers just fit into the board (the nut-side washer is hidden by the angle of the camera). You want to buy the largest diameter washer that will still comfortably fit inside of the board, with the center hole sized for your bolt.

To tighten, you will need two combination wrenches, using the closed ends. I found that because I was at the very limit I sometimes needed to do a little wiggling to get the wrench onto the bolt or nut…again, holes a bit closer to the end of the board than 2″ would have made this part much easier. This will be fiddly, but doable, at 2″. Again, if you’re using the bolts as clamps with the glue joint still wet, you need to work quickly to get to the second bolt and nut before everything sets.

The table top is about half assembled. I have glued and bolted each joint. Be sure you keep the end-board socket holes and any tabs on the boards on the same side of the table!

Once your table top is assembled, insert the four sockets. Do not glue them yet, we’ll do this when we glue the legs in. The bit of wiggle room not gluing them now allows will make the cross-piece easier to fit.

Start the assembly of the legs by gluing three end caps to the three short legs.

Glue the remaining end caps to the two long legs.

Glue the two “T” connectors to two of the short legs, as shown.

Glue the “X” connector to the remaining short leg.

Glue the long cross-pieces to the two short leg assemblies, as shown.

Note: You should size these cross pieces by temporarily assembling the short legs into their sockets (using the stubs) and placing the “X” in the center of the table. You can then measure from end of the “T” facing the “X” to the “X”, and again on the other side. Add about two inches to each piece to account for the depth of the glue area, and you should be very close (average the two measurements for an “exact” fit in the center). Dry fit the assembly together to make sure it will work. As long as you have enough pipe going into the connector for a good glue joint, close is good enough.

Once you’ve sized, cut, and test fit your cross pieces and have glued them to the short “T” legs, glue one of the short leg assemblies to the “X” leg, as shown. The “T” and the “X” must be coplanar.

Glue the stubs into the bottom of the “T” connectors.

To glue the cross-member assembly together, place the assembly with the “X” fitting on it into one of the sockets. Do not glue it in place yet.

Glue the other leg assembly in placeby adding glue to the “X” connector, and insert the pipe assembly without the “X” while simultaneously placing its stub into the table socket (again, without glue in the table socket). This allows you to get an exact fit on the cross member without worrying about measurements or multiple glue joints. Remove the cross brace assembly from the table top once the glue has set.

Finally, apply a liberal amount of glue to the two sockets in the table that hold the cross piece assembly, and insert the asembly into them, pushing it fully home so the “T” connectors rest against the bottom of the table. Wiggle the sockets back and forth a bit when as you assemble to get glue between the table top and the socket. Once the cross brace is glued in place, you can liberally add glue to the two remaining sockets and add the long legs to each, using the same wiggle to get a good join between the socket and the table.

We’re done assembling! Note, this obstacle is not usable as-is, it is far too slippery. You will need to add a non-slip surface, either paint with sand in it, or non-skid tape. We opted for paint, in a left-over color we had lying around. Be sure to scuff the gloss from the surface of the table before painting to give the paint some “bite.”

Allie is in charge of paint, and has achieved a nice stucco effect here. However, she is considering stripping this and using non-skid tape or outdoor carpeting, as she has doubts about the paint’s durability. A primer for plastic would help adhesion a great deal, but we didn’t have any at hand.

Note that this table does require being placed in a fairly level spot, due to the five legs.

Alternative Designs

Another row of bolts across the middle of the table would make this stiffer, but would require cutting access holes (probably 3/4 to 1″) for the wrenches needed to tighten them…that’s a lot of holes. Tess and Kipp together weigh about 70-80 pounds, and the table holds the pair of them just fine–but more strength is good.

I suspect that instead of a single leg in the middle (on the cross-brace), the same support would be provided by an extra middle leg on each side. You would then use four short-leg T-assemblies with two “X” legs and much shorter pipes. The center cross-brace and center foot would be eliminated.

A smaller table could skip the cross-brace entirely.

You could possibly leave the end-caps off the table legs and cut the legs at an angle. This would allow you to press the table into soft ground. Likewise, you could leave the end caps off, set the table onto your surface, and then carefully trim the legs to exact length.

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!

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.

Tools

You will need a PVC pipe cutter, a sharpie, a measuring tape and a short length of 4 x 4 or another solid block with a square edge for aligning perpendicular joints.

Materials

Below are the pre-cut pieces and connectors (all for 1″ pipe), ready to be assembled. The straight pieces of pipe are about 24 feet in total length, which means you’ll need three 10-foot pieces of pipe to construct one broad jump. In addition to the pipe and connectors, you will need to buy one 16′ vinyl ranch fence rail.

1 16′ vinyl rance fence 6″ rail, cut into four 4′ pieces (1)
2 90-degree slip connectors (20)
3 1-¾” pipe stubs (22)
4 slip end caps (4)
5 “T” slip connectors (16)
6 5″ pipe sections (16)
7 4″ pipe sections (12)
8 30″ pipe poles (5)

Note on the fence rail: The trim aisle at Home Depot has a hand saw for cutting long pieces of trim to length; you will probably want to use this facility to cut the fence rail in half to get it home, as 16′ is pretty hard to handle. When you get the two eight foot pieces home, cut them in half; it’s more important to get all four pieces the same length than it is to have them be precisely four feet long. If your cut at Home Depot didn’t exactly split your rail, you should cut the shorter piece in half at home, and then cut two pieces from the remaining board to match. Bringing a tape measure and a marker to the store will help you cut the rail exactly in half, saving a step.

Assembly

Please see the tips page for general hints on cutting and assembling PVC pipe. Look for the red glue symbols in the photos to show the freshly glued joints in each step.

On this particular obstacle, you’re going to end up doing the same step as many as 16 times, so it’s a nice zen activity!

Start by gluing a 7 4″ pipe section to the center connector of a 5 “T” connector.

Do that seven more times, for a total of eight (8) identical assemblies, as shown above. These are the risers for the two high boards in the center of the jump.

Next, glue one of the 3 stubs to the center connector of a 5 “T” connector.

Do that seven more times, for a total of eight (8) identical assemblies, as shown above. These are the risers for the low boards at either end of the jump. (Do you detect a pattern here?)

In the next step, we’re going to glue a 90-degree connector to every one of those subassemblies from the prior steps. Above is how we’re going to keep the connectors aligned properly. By holding the “T” flat on our work surface, we’ll twist the 90-degree connector on and hold it flat against a scrap of 4×4 (you can use anything you want as long at it is perpendicular to your work surface).

Here we’ve taken a 2 90-degree connector and have glued it to one of the short risers we created in a previous step.

And here are all 16 sub-assemblies, glued and ready to go. Zen, I tell you, zen. Just don’t zone out too much!

Next, take your four remaining 7 4″ pipe sections and glue them to the four remaining 2 90-degree connectors. These will hold the guide poles.

Now we’re ready to assemble the side rails. Shown above are the components for one of them. We will be using two of the guide pole bases we just assembled, as well as four each of the short and tall risers, arranged short-short-tall-tall-tall-tall-short-short. To join the risers to each other we will use seven 3 pipe stubs. It’s important that this entire rail’s components are coplanar, but it’s not difficult to assemble them as such. Start at one end and work your way down, pushing each new piece flat to the work surface.

Here I’ve started to assemble a rail. I found it easier to glue the stub to the next riser in line and then glue that to the existing rail.

Here’s one rail which has been glued up. Note the double glue symbols, each of which indicates a pipe stub with a glued joint to each riser.

Before setting this rail aside to dry while assembling the other one, take eight of your 6 5″ pipe sections and glue them to the rail as shown. These are the pieces that will slip inside of your boards.

Never before has “repeat for the other side” covered more ground, but, well, use your remaining 3 stubs, riser assemblies and 6 5″ pipes to create a mirror of the rail you just assembled. Our board sequence is symmetrical, so as long as you do exactly what you did the first time, you’ll be fine.

Note: If you are making an asymmetrical jump (for example, all of your boards go up like a staircase from low to high) it is critical that you glue your risers into the new rail so they mirror the risers in the rail you’ve already assembled. If you started with low on the left on the first rail, you will need to start with low on the right on the second rail. Be very careful about this–dry-assemble the second rail and hold it up to the first as they will be used together if you have any doubts at all.

Now comes the fun part. Take one of your boards and slip it over the first two pipes on one of your rails. This is a tight sliding fit and doesn’t require any glue (which will also allow you to take it apart in the future, if you want or need to). Starting the board at an angle to go over first one pipe and then the other may make things easier. Note, if your pipes seem to interfere with the ribs inside the board, just gently spread them a bit, they may just be slightly crooked but will not interfere once they’ve started.

Push the board fully home.

Repeat for the three remaining boards. If your rails came with mounting tabs, a couple of your boards may still have them, as seen on the furthest right board here. Make sure they face down for best appearances.

Lay the rail with four boards so the rail faces down. We will now insert the other rail into the boards. This will require some patience, as there are eight pipes to fit into a fairly tight space. Start with one end with the second rail at an angle to the jump assembly. Put the first pipe a fair ways into the first board, then start bringing the rail towards the jump assembly, starting each pipe as you go. Towards the third or fourth board, you’ll need to keep watch that you don’t undo your previous work as you try to get each subsequent pipe started as the angle begins to get quite shallow.

Patience is the key, they will all eventually start! Once they do, stand the jump up on the first rail and press them together so that all boards are fully seated on both rails. Shown above are both rails fully inserted into all four boards. All of the hard work is done!

Glue the 4 end caps to the 8 guide poles…

…and then glue the guide pole assemblies to the jump, and you’re done!

And there’s our finished broad jump!

Alternative Designs

There are a lot of ways to customize this jump to your own purposes:

• You can vary the length of the pipe between the pairs of risers to space the boards further apart
• You can alter the heights of the risers for shorter or taller boards (see note below), or to have the front edge of the board lower than the rear edge.
• You can use a stair-step arrangement, from low to high (which is how I believe most “professional” broad jumps are arranged)
• You could use pairs of pipes four feet long between the risers instead of vinyl fence boards. You will probably need to wrap each pair in a material to mimic a board, though.
• It may be possible to use only a single riser per board, designed to slip into the center opening of the board. This would allow you to swivel the board slightly to have a lower leading edge, and of course would just about halve the connectors needed, cut the pipe down by about a quarter, and cut the cost by perhaps 30%. However, it will not be as sturdy, and I cannot guarantee the boards will stay put despite the tight friction fit. Let me know if you try it!

Note on board height: The lowest board on our jump still has a leading edge top height that is higher (3.5″) than many official dimensions allow. This is because off-the-shelf PVC connectors don’t allow for a lower board in this design without modification. You can modify regular PVC connectors and still use this design and get the lowest board to be just a smidge over 2″ high: Cut one leg of a 90-degree connector flush with the bottom of the other leg, and cut a center “T” connector fitting off to be flush with the rest of the connector. Join these to each other with a very small pipe-stub, probably no more than half an inch long. This won’t be the strongest joint in the world but there’s not much stress on this in any case.

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.

It pays to be accurate when cutting and gluing, ensuring each pipe is seated fully in its connector, and that perpendicular joints are as true as you can make them.

Tools

You will need a PVC pipe cutter, a sharpie, a measuring tape and a short length of 4 x 4 or another solid block with a square edge for aligning perpendicular joints.

Materials

Below are the pre-cut pieces and connectors (all for 1″ pipe), ready to be assembled. The straight pieces of pipe are about 29 feet in total length, which means you’ll need three 10-foot pieces of pipe to construct one set of six weave poles.

1 “T” slip connectors (10)
2 slip end caps (12)
3 90-degree slip connectors (14)
4 1-¾” pipe stubs (6)
5 4″ pipe sections (18)
6 30″ pipe poles (6)
7 18″ pipe dividers (5)

Note, this project is a good one to have a few spare connectors and lengths of 4″ pipe at the ready; I wasn’t satisfied with a couple of my sub-assemblies and opted for a do-over!

Assembly

Please see the tips page for general hints on cutting and assembling PVC pipe. Look for the red glue symbols in the photos to show the freshly glued joints in each step.

In the photos below, there are a few steps where I illustrate one of a particular sub-assembly, while you will actually need to build several. I will note these instances in the text.

Let’s start with the base.

Start by gluing six end caps 2 to six sections 5.

Next, glue six “T” connectors 1 to the six sub-assemblies from the previous step.

Glue six more sections 5 to the other side of the “T” from the previous step. It is important that these pieces are all firmly seated in the connector.

Glue the six stubs 4 into the “T” connectors in the sub-assembly from the previous step.

This is how we’re going to ensure that the next connector goes on perpendicular to the sub-assembly. After gluing the “T” on in roughly the right orientation, we are going to quickly place the assembly on our work surface and press firmly against the two “T” connectors, so that the new connector is flat on the board and the “T” in the center is firmly against the scrap of 4 x 4.

Orient the scrap (or whatever you’re using) to make the job go smoothly. If your pipe is a very tight fit in the connector, be ready to press firmly to get both “T” connectors flat against the work surface and scrap. It is important that the pipe is fully seated in the new “T”, as well.

You will be making four of the above, using the remaining “T” connectors 1. In addition, you will make two more in the same fashion, using 90-degree connectors 3 in place of the “T” connectors (see photo below).

Here are all of the sub-assemblies we made in the previous step. Note the orientation of the 90-degree connectors on the two sub-assemblies–they must be orientated as shown.

Now the fun part! Using the five dividers 7, glue the subassemblies you’ve accumulated into one long base. Start with one of the 90-degree assemblies and work down as shown above. It is important that each new sub-assembly added is coplanar with the previous ones. This is easy with the first two or three, but becomes more awkward towards the end of the process–the base will be about nine feet long when you’re done, so be sure you have enough flat workspace to keep everything aligned.

I’ve shown two glue joints above, but you will want to glue them one at a time.

This is what you’ll have when you’re done. Note, I did not glue this up on the ground–it was easier to photograph there.

Our base is done, let’s move on to the poles.

For each pole, take two 90-degree connectors 3 and glue them to a section 5 as shown. It is important that the section is fully seated and that the two connectors are coplanar. Glue the joints one at a time.

Make six of these assemblies, as shown above.

Glue six end caps 2 to the poles 6.

Finally, glue the poles into the pole base assemblies as shown. You’re done!

Place the base on the lawn where you will be using it, and slip the poles on. It’s best to wiggle the poles a bit while slipping them on, and hold them by their bases while doing so.

Here the poles are set to their fully open position…

…and here the poles are fully closed.

Note: For settings between fully open and fully closed, always rotate the poles in the same direction to maintain their spacing.

Kipp concentrates as he makes his way through nearly-closed poles.

Alternative Designs

Instead of the 90-degree connectors at the two ends, you can use “T” connectors and leave their ends open. This would allow you to use a spare 18″ pipe section to temporarily join two sets of poles together to make one larger set.

Six poles is about the longest section that can be easily moved around. If you want, say, eight poles, I would recommend making two four-pole assemblies.

The spacing between poles here is 20″, which is a standard measurement. You can change any of the measurements, but I’d be careful with varying this spacing.

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.