Thursday, November 12, 2015

Understanding The Different Pieces Of Agility Equipment

By Cheng Bernhardt


For the most part, dog agility competitions use the same types of obstacles. While each organization will have rules about height and the amount of obstacles on a course, you tend to see agility equipment such as agility tunnels, an agility chute, a pause table, a teeter totter, weave poles, an A-frame and a dog walk on just about every course.

Jumps are always going to have a big presence on the agility course, so for those in the market for agility equipment, jumps are a safe bet. In general, dogs love agility jumps and they learn these jumping skills quickly. Generally, there will be several pole jumps, including double or triple jumps that dogs must leap across as well as panel jumps, which range from just one panel to higher, multi-panel agility jumps. It's good to just start out with single jumps and gradually increase height and then continue to increase the difficulty.

Beyond the typical pole jumps and panel jumps, there are some pretty cool jumps used by a few agility organizations, such as the United Kennel Club or UKC. One jump you might find at a UKC-sanctioned event is a window agility jump. This is basically a panel jump with a rectangular hole that acts as the "window." In addition, UKC also adds interesting pieces of agility equipment such as a hoop tunnel, a sway bridge or a swing plank. A fewer other hurdles might include the rail fence hurdle or a picket fence hurdle.

Jumps are exciting and fun for dogs, which makes them fairly easy to teach, but there are other pieces of agility equipment that aren't too complicated to learn. While it's not as exciting as tire jumps or weaves, the pause table is an important piece of agility equipment that serves as both an agility training tool and an obedience tool. The pause table is simply a raised square structure that dogs must hop onto and "pause" for a certain number of seconds before continuing through an agility course. Your dog must learn how to stay, sit and lay down anyway, so the pause table provides you with an opportunity to teach these important skills.

Some contact obstacles are easier to teach than others. Contact obstacles include agility equipment such as dog tunnels and chutes, the agility A-frame and the agility dog walk. The chutes and tunnels can seem a bit daunting at first, but generally it doesn't take long for dogs to warm up to these items. The teeter-totter, however, because of its movement, can be a bit frightening, and some dogs also are intimidated by the height and angle of the A-frame. For these pieces of agility equipment, simply provide an abundance of praise and give your dog plenty of time to warm up to these two items.

When you are ready to start buying agility equipment, you can purchase items online from places such as Carlson Agility. They sell all types of agility equipment, including contact equipment, agility jumps, K9 training equipment, weaves, tunnels, chutes and more. For a puppy or a small breed, there also is the option of purchasing mini agility equipment.




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