Equipment Creations

Ya know, it seems like I spend at least one day every month working on agility equipment.  I am either maintaining something, or creating something new.

USDAA is beginning to move toward 5 foot wide jumps and the "majority" must have wings.  So I decided that I needed to 'up' my inventory of jumps with wings.  They do change the way that you can move around the course, some times blocking your path.  Certainly they make it easier for dogs to jump the backside of the jump (if they are a jump hugger).

I had a set of stand alone wings made with lattice that I bought years ago.  They are great, but irritate me slightly when I have to keep picking them up from the wind.  So, last month (told you I work on equipment once a month) I made a wing design that attaches/detaches from the jump itself.  It has a little bit of material on it.  Again, irritating because the wind takes it down.

So, here is my new design.  I can adapt my existing jumps to have these wings which is super nice on the pocket book.  I wanted to make something that might be a tad bit more wind proof--today was a great test.  All wing jumps are down EXCEPT these :).  Also, since I don't glue my jumps they still break away if the dog collides with them.  They are 9 inches wide which I know is a little skinny, but I wanted to keep the weight down, have it wide enough it helps my dogs take back sides, but narrow enough that they aren't tempted to go through the wing.  They can easily be widened if I decide to go in that direction.

Wing PVC Jump

The other item on my agenda was a wall jump.  I was setting up some courses that required a wall jump and on rare occasion we do see one on course.   It also occurred to me that Tangle has not seen one so I should probably get him familiar with the obstacle.  My other two dogs decided to jump on the top and then down the other side the first time they saw it.  Definitely a fault :)

Well, I really didn't want to spend too much time constructing something so I decided this design would work for familiarization purposes for the dogs.

Ghetto Wall Jump

The 'wall' is made of Styrofoam, maybe 4 inches thick.  The wall itself is 22" high and the displaceable brick is 4 inches high.  It is held up by sandwiching it between two of my existing jumps.  Later I might cut this down so that the total height will be 22, but for the moment I needed 26 inches.

The line of hearts at the top of the wall are the displaceable bricks.

Rubberizing Contacts - Part I

I have been saving my pennies for a while now with the goal of getting at least my dog walk and A-frame rubberized.  I looked into all sorts of rubbers and solutions, including having someone do it for me.

Well, in the interest of money, I decided to do the rubberizing (yep, it is really a word) myself.

My current contacts are steel with wood and sand coating (no slates).  The steel is still in great shape but I did want to get the decking replaced with something that wouldn't rot. 

After much research, google didn't produce much, actually looking at equipment was the best information, I found that most people put on an Aluminum Composite board (DiBond, Alumicore, e-Panel).  The board is used in the "real world" by sign makers so that was the best source.  If you buy it from the sign maker I found they marked it up 100%, so I finally tracked down a wholesaler who would sell it to my business. (http://denver.lairdplastics.com/product/brands/dibond)

We found, as advertised, that the Dibond does cut with common wood-working tools.  We got a metal cutting blade for the jig saw, but other than that no other "special" equipment was used to make the cuts.

guide for cutting length of the board

guide and setup for cutting smaller boards

We marked our cuts with the chalk, secured a 2x4x8 as a guide onto the decking, and the cuts went very smoothly.  Just to be extra safe I sanded the cut edges with emery cloth to be sure that there was no metal shards left on the material.

The composite board comes with a protective plastic layer.  You will need to peel this off, at least on the side that you will be applying the rubber.

Next we drilled holes for the rivets.  You can apply the rivets on top of the rubber, but we choose to put them on before the rubber.  I think this is the easiest since it would be hard to keep track of the holes or cleanly drill holes after the rubber is applied.

Drilling holes






The last part of this particular board was to mix and apply the rubber.  I ordered my rubber from Circle S Agility.   Gary provided the entire kit of rubber, binder, gloves, great instructions, etc.. that I needed. 

Obstacle colors on agility equipment

Warning...short rant

I was at a USDAA trial this weekend.  The club had a break away tire--good for them.  However, the tire was striped, dark red and dark blue, with a dark red frame. 

The design of the tire started to get my attention when I noticed a large number of dogs faulting the tire.  So, I watched the ring that had the tire in it.  Depending on where the tire was placed, the faults would rise.  When the dogs were jumping through the tire and the tire blended with the background colors, the faults were even higher.

From a dog's point of view red is seen as brown'ish, blue can be seen in a truer form. So, next to the indoor arena dirt, is this tire really standing out enough for dogs to be able to judge what they need to judge?

Now, I am not a trouble maker if I can avoid it, nor do I want to get involved in political battles, but this became very important to me when one of my dogs head planted into the bottom of the tire (when it was against a non-contrasting background).  He saw it too late!!  He has never crashed a tire in his life.

I do believe that it is the handlers job to train the tire, and I have done that with all my dogs.  None of my dogs typically fault the tire and I tend to handle very conservatively around the tire.  That is to say, no blind crosses, no front crosses if I can avoid it.  So, this commentary isn't about handling the tire.

I am trying to bring this issue to the club's attention!  Put contrasting colors on your tire!

In researching (to make sure my facts were straight) dog's vision I came across several articles which you may find interesting. 

Interesting articles on what dogs see…
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/200810/can-dogs-see-colors
http://www.vetinfo.com/dogsee.html
Several articles in Clean Run, Jan 2009 and Feb 2009 on dogs and their vision.

What I also discovered and found a little disturbing is that at least in the "bigger" venues (USDAA and AKC), none of them have color or contrasting color requirements on the tire (or any other obstacle).  Really?  Interesting and to their credit, DOCNA did

 Now most clubs and tires that I have seen tend to be contrasting colors, but there is no regulation to govern contrasting color hence making this tire illegal.  Are we confortable with dangerous?

"It should be wrapped in several contrasting colors to make it very visible to the dog"