Downsizing: Agility Equipment

SUMMARY: A-frame and Chute are free to good homes, maybe triple jump, maybe more, hard decisions 
(scroll down to "What am I not planning on taking with me when I move?")

Ooops, thought I posted this on Friday (the 16th). Guess I'm posting it now, and just backdating it.)

When I bought my current home, nearly 2 decades ago, my Agility Gung-ho-ness expressed itself dramatically by taking my money. And I don't mean classes or competitions or travel (although those were also true). I mean: Equipment! Full set! Here in my yard! To train fabulous world-class agility champions!

... we didn't get to world-class because I'm honestly too lazy to be that dedicated to training and improving our skills.  But it did help in achieving speed, accuracy, and championships of various sorts and quantities for Remington, Jake, Tika, and Boost.

What I had before moving here

• A teeter, gift of my then-husband less than a year before we split up.  It's not that he wasn't usually a kind and thoughtful guy, because he was. But--life happens. (1998, $400)

• A tunnel, a short 10-foot yellow one for which my agility instructor arranged group pricing, for her students and other agility folks. (1996, $100)

• Cheap weave poles, as in, I bought white stick-in-the-ground fence posts and tried using them (the little tabs all the way up them, however, were not an ideal surface).

• Cheap weave poles #2, as in, I bought a long metal strip from Home Depot and drilled holes in it and used very long bolts over which I dropped PVC piping of the correct size for agility. BUT turns out that that solid-seeming metal strip became astonishingly flexible when dogs raced through the poles.

• Cheap PVC jumps that I made using PVC for the bases and uprights, drilled holes through them, put a longish bolt through the holes, forming places on which to balance the crossbars.  This didn't work well for several reasons (e.g., in one direction, if the dog crashed the bar, the whole jump came down).

• Tire jump, made with an actual motorcycle tire and heavy-duty huge PVC frame and base.

What I splurged on in 2001/2002

• Table: Wood top with PVC base--to change heights, had to change out the PVC legs, which wasn't speedy, but it was lightweight. (2001, $100)
• Weaves: purple powder-coat w/adjustable offsets (screw in pole supports), 20" spacing, 2 folding 6-foot sections for easy transport (2001, $197)
• A-Frame:  From Duncan at Action K-9, one of the earlier makers of high-quality sturdy competition equipment. (2002, $865)
• Broad jump: 5-pc metal and wood, (2 short, 2 medium, one tall), flat tops --all of which made this obsolete for at least USDAA and CPE several years later, if it wasn't already that way because I think it was designed for AKC purposes. (2002, $174)
• Dogwalk: See Aframe. (2002, $752)
• Jumps!: Finally. Four official metal-frame with screw-on metal jump cups (2002, $170 total)
• Teeter base, adjustable height, heavy-duty metal base: Also Action K-9 (2002, $2.75)
• Tunnel: 20' heavy-duty double-walled teal & gray with 4" pitch--totally competition level. (2002, $360)
• Chute (aka closed tunnel): Competition quality plastic barrel with metal stand, 8' blue/purple/white sexy chute fabric! (2002, $251)
• Triple jump, whooo, big time! Purple powder-coated metal, 2 pieces (2002, $127.50)
• PVC for jump bars -- as needed, bought fancy tape and shelf paper to decorate them all with, ditto for the weaves. (Ongoing--minor costs)

Over time, added more jumps, more tunnels; retired jumps and tunnels as they rusted or wore out in the sun, replaced the table top once. The screw threads in my weaves rusted away, so that was useless, so replaced once with someone's no-longer-using 20" spaced official weaves, also eventually had issues, so replaced with someone's no-longer-using 22" spaced official weaves (of course at that time, USDAA had moved to 24" spaced weaves, so really they were no longer official). Resurfaced the teeter. A friend borrowed and resurfaced some of the Aframe.

What am I not planning on taking with me when I move?

• Aframe: Just too heavy for me these days. I haven't used it in several years, plus there is an important bit of damage that I can't fix myself. AND it's the old style textured surface, where now everyone uses rubberized. And it needs one critical bit of work.

• Chute: No one will want this, probably: All agility organizations canned them a couple of years back. Such a crowd pleaser (and I loved watching it), but they added too much time on the course (adjusting the fabric before each dog), and posed a risk to dogs who got tangled which BTW I also thought was unfair because that often added time to the dog's run and, really, there's only so much you can control with a fast dog through a floppy piece of fabric.  I ended up never using it except with each new/young dog or as a refresher once a year or so. So it's in excellent condition.

• Triple Jump: Sigh. Lovely purple thang. I think no organizations do this any more, either.

• Dogwalk: Erk. At the moment, I *am* planning on taking it, but it needs some rehab and repainting and it's the sort of equipment that (because of its weight) I'd likely just set up in one place and leave it there, which reduces a bit its usefulness for anything beyond the contacts themselves (complex sequencing with the walk in the same place always is a little predictable for the dogs...)  Still pondering. (And ditto on the rubberizing like the A-frame.)  

And... really... how much agility training will I ever want or be able to do in the future?  It is just a FUN thing, though!

What I AM planning on taking

• Jumps that are in reasonably good condition. This is maybe only half a dozen...

• Tunnels that are in reasonably good condition.  This might be only one or two... [frowny face]

• Table (... oh, and the tabletop needs cleaning and repainting)

• Teeter with both bases

• Tire jump--TBD?   Dunno--that motorcycle tire is heavy and needs to be retaped and is definitely not competition legal, and the big-old-PVC frame is broken in 2 places (works Oooookayyyyy just in the yard for basic use) that would require sawing and buying more pieces and measuring fit and gluing...  ugh. But the PVC is lighter than metal frames...   
  
  ... oh, also much cheaper, so I could build myself another one for not much other than time and effort. But how much would a real one cost me? Checking online--from inexpensive PVC-framed (but looks better made than mine) or used ones (quality TBD) to top-quality competition: $150 to $625 [really, J&J?!?!? REALLY?! -- I mean, Clean Run has one for $350-$525...]

• OK, tire jump NOT TBD, just talked myself out of taking it.

• Weaves. Even if they are only 22" span.

• Broad jump. I guess. It's not standard by far any more... but it's what I have and would probably work for basic training.

• PVC jump bumps for training (look up Susan Salo jump bumps).

• Tunnel bags - I have only 2 good pairs right now, and they fold flat once the sand/gravel is removed. ;-)

• Misc small other random stuff

Gallery of equipment fame and shame

Dogwalk when only a few years old. Glory days.

Dogwalk is about 30' long. 

Dogwalk needs... um... TLC?

A-frame in its younger age.

A-frame in my back yard. (Go straight across to the right from the green arrow.)
Takes up a lot of visual space and all in one large chunk. 

Aframe now. Mostly usable condition.

But this is a problem (bent pipe).

My teeter gets a lot of unauthorized use.

Why teeter needed resurfacing 10 years back. Replaced with fiberglass.
Currently, the metal parts are rusting and some of those surfaces are peeling away.
But I think it'll be OK.

Old tire parts I dragged out from behind the compost bins. Needs work.
But OK for occasional gentle use at the moment.

When expensive metal jump bases rust away... out they go.

Same model chute as mine. Beautiful colors! Mine has no duct tape.

When tunnels (purple) and tunnel bags (teal) are new and beautiful.

When Good Tunnels Go Bad...
and should really have been disposed of much earlier.

This is what USDAA broad jumps should look like.
Mine are flat across the top and form an upside down arc
instead of an ascending format.

My current weaves (except I've removed all the colored tape).
Weaves also take up a lot of space: 12 poles with 22" between.
(And modern poles have 24" between. So, yep, 22 feet long.)

Previous weaves. The pegs had screw bases so they could be put in line as usual
or you could move them out onto the tab to one side or the other for training.
Those little screw bases' threads rusted away, sometimes the entire screw base.

Tika demonstrates an unauthorized use of weave poles. 
Rules prohibit dogs from lying on their sides and
pulling themselves along the weaves by hooking paws over the poles. 
Such a rebel.

Tunnel Running and Games

SUMMARY: Remembering Chip. Missing this happiness so much.

Backfill: From Facebook June 21; posted here July 2

Chip learned to do tunnels from Boost. And he loves doing them. Just not when I tell him too. And he taunts you to chase him. And he loves being wet from playing in the hose, and whenever he rolls around in pleasure inside or out, he makes happy little noises.

Old tunnel, new tunnel

SUMMARY: No more death-trap ancient yellow tunnel in the back 40.

Backfill: (repost from FB today)

Dogs didn't care about the condition of the old yellow tunnel--they still ran through it full speed I don't know how. (I never sent them into it, BTW--this was their own playtime.)

Ancient yellow tunnel gave its all--and then some.

Decaying at the left end.

Decaying at the right end.

See the 3 broken wires sticking up? Death trap.

How did they run full speed through that?

Guess what arrived yesterday!! Happy happy happy new purple 20-foot tunnel.

Glad to realize that I have actually taught them some useful things. Stand in front of the tunnel and say "reaaaaaadyyyy..." and the ears come up and the eyes are on me! Dogs are ready for whatever, such as tunnelrun!

It was fun in the house for an evening, but today it is out in the yard where it shall remain.

Dearth of Blog Posts--

SUMMARY: --but--but--so much to say to myself, to keep notes on, to share photos of, not to mention the photo themes from assorted places on the web!

So pretty much I don't post anything.

As a stopgap, here are a few quickie shots from this week from my corner of San Jose, CA.

Last Saturday--Who puts candy stores like this in my nearby mall? WHO WHO WHO? WHY? It goes on and on like this, and worse! Lucky to have gotten out for under $20 and under 20,000 calories! Yikes!

Later Saturday--Zorro and Chip play The Stupid Tunnel Game. Plus, considering that I haven't had an actual functioning agility dog in a year and a half, I sure do have a lot still lying around instead of put away. (Including a pile of rotting tunnel sandbags & containers--)

Sunday-- Mom is ill. Modern technology comes to the rescue--camera-microphones in key places in the house and a wireless monitor, so when I'm over there on a Sunday morning and having Diet Cherry Coke^tm and brownies for breakfast, I'll know if she's trying to sneak up on me and tell me that that is NOT an appropriate breakfast, Young Lady! Plus, meanwhile, my screensaver shows a photo of all of us "kids" wearing tshirts that she gave us one Christmas many years ago.

Monday-- 106.9 F (41.6 C) in my yard around 3:00.  That's also about when what is now known as The Loma Fire breaks out on Loma Prieta peak. By 5:30, the mushroom cloud has spread eastward across the south valley. Although that's about 12 miles from my house, I can see this clearly and also the flames at night. (As of last night, it had over 2,000 fire personnel working to contain it, had consumed almost 7 square miles (18 sq. km), and was anticipated to be contained by sometime this coming Monday. Contained, not out. I can smell the smoke. I can cough on the smoke.

Tuesday-- The story here, among those who have a prime view, is still the Loma Fire. I refuse to use a tripod, but still can clearly see flames and their glow in the thick, drought-fed smoke in the distance.

Wednesday--Don't let Chip pull the wool over your eyes, all innocent and pushing his Kong Wobbler food dispenser around like a neat and tidy dog--half an hour before the carpet wore a mantle of crumbled dirt clods and chewed-up sticks, and it will again half an hour from now. And WHO with dogs would have carpet that color ANYWAY?!

Thursday--I love my kitchen clock. Still makes me smile, 15 years after I found it at an art & wine show. Can you see how the second hand is like a little red corkscrew? Happy happy happy time!

Yesterday (Friday)-- Us iz bored, Human Mom? Nooooo! No pay usses no mind, H.M., go on work your computer on, on couch, iz OK.

Today--2nd annual Martial Cottle Park Harvest Festival. Walking distance behind my house. How cool is that?!

And WHO KNOWS what tomorrow will bring?! Maybe a movie? Some popcorn? Dog antics? Maybe even dog TRAINING? Sleeping? Good thing I have a camera to record it all!

And Speaking of Entropic Tunnels

SUMMARY: An exploration of the thermodynamic decay of cynological paraphernalia.

My first agility equipment purchase EVER was a couple of small blue fabric spring-loaded children's play tunnels, something like this:

(Get one here!). They were great for teaching newbie agility dogs to go straight, but they didn't bend worth beans. They didn't last long, either.

My first *real* agility equipment purchase was a 10-foot yellow tunnel; several of us in class ordered them through our instructor. Those were the days. Hard to believe that I've been doing agility enough now to have bought 5 real tunnels. That first one died a few years back, too much sun and activity. One--my expensive competition-quality double-walled 20-footer, bought new--is now held together with clips. One--a basic yellow 15-footer--I also bought new and is slowly decaying but isn't dead yet.

One--also a basic yellow 15-footer--I bought used from an instructor. Sure, it might have flaws that one wouldn't want in a class situation with liability and dozens of dogs pounding it night after night, but it's fine in a private yard with just a couple of dogs sometimes using it. Still, it is out in the sun and rain and wind and sleet and snow (although not so much the last 2 in san jose) 24/7/365. Plus it is used as a launching pad for squirrel patrol and has trouble staying roundish.

And, so, it has come to the end of its life as something resembling an agility tunnel.

Poor Mr. Tunnel:

The wires on about half the tunnel have separated from the actual tunnel, so the middle section sort of sloughs into a sorry lump.

Isn't it fun, boys and girls, seeing what's underneath the yellow fiberglass-reinforced (or whatever it is holds it together) vinyl?

If you leave one side of a bright yellow tunnel always up, it becomes not so bright yellow any more and you can see the individual strands of the reinforcing stuff, so fragile that glancing at it wrong causes handfuls to disintegrate on sight.

Plus numerous spots in which doggie paws can--or already have--gone right through.

So this week I bought my fifth tunnel ever--used--again my timing was good, picked up a battered one from an instructor, but it's a sturdy, high-quality tunnel with probably a couple of years life left to it when used in Taj MuttHall fashion.  So Taj MuttHall will return to having three functional tunnels, at least for a while.

Dogolio

SUMMARY: Socks, shoes, tunnel kludge, digging, ribbons, movies, calories, scary footing.

• Socks: The best-dressed agility handler always wears socks that matches her shirt. (I made that part up to justify my lifestyle.) The best-dressed agility handler wants to know why stores have decided that you must buy *their* selection of colors in packages of 3, 4, or 5 pairs at a time? If I want a green pair, I also have to buy navy and light blue? What's the deal here? And where can I buy one-up solid color women's socks? (I've tried half a dozen or more stores.)
• Shoes: Agility has also transformed my life in subtle ways. It always used to be tennis shoes and flip-flops. Now I wear these casual slip-on shoes, whose existence and utility I originally became aware of because many agility people wear them when they're around agility areas but not doing actual agility. I love 'em! Comfortable, convenient. I wear them to the bone. Here are the pairs I just tossed; bought two more exactly the same, and they follow many others exactly the same.
  
  
• Better than duct tape in some situations: Remember a month or so ago when my tunnel started to unravel--er, hmm, was that during the winter sometime? Maybe the end of last year? Holy rollover, batdog, it was a full frigging YEAR ago! Time flies. Anyway, this weekend I suddenly thought of a solution, raced off to the hardware store, and voila!
  
  
• Saw Robin Hood this weekend. "None shall pass!"?!? Give. Me. A. BREAK! Is this a medieval action/adventure film or is it a Monty Python pastiche? But neato-cool-out for the scene in which Russell Crowe snuggles with the Irish Wolfhound.
• Tika isn't usually a digging dog. Now, at 9, she's apparently become a dog with a mission. She has started working furiously digging out the soil from behind the compost bins. Doesn't appear to be any rodent-like thing, not that kind of intensity, but more like she just wants to make the biggest hole in the universe. When it started to show from around the left side of the square bin, I walked over and looked at it and asked what she was doing. She came out from behind, walked around the bin, looked at it critically, grabbed two branches on the overhanging shrub , one after the other, twisted them until they came off, threw them to the ground, went back around behind the bin, and continued digging. (Note pile of discarded diggings to the right of the square bin.)
  
  
  
  
• OK, you bag of peppermint salt water taffy, let that be a lesson to you! You too, you mint swirl fudge from Miles Kimball made with fresh cream and butter! Tempt me and you get EATEN!
• Friday, walked with  a friend around a nicely landscaped percolation pond on Water District property. There was a little pier-like thing going out of the water, so there we went. You could see water between a couple of the boards. Boost went into her Evil Scary Footing mode, even though the boards weren't at all slippery or loose. Not sure whether it was simply because it was a wood floor or because it was surrounded by water a couple of feet below. (Note stretched-out body, bent elbows, rear feet splayed to the sides and straight out behind her, tail down. Bonzo dog)
  
  
  
• Judging by Tika's collection of ribbons so far this year (11 days of trialing), she's having a spectacular opening season.
  
  
  
  
• Judging by Boost's collection of ribbons so far, hmm, well, maybe not so much.
  
  
  
  
  

Agility Photo Album

SUMMARY: Photos from last weekend, and the thoughts that go with them.

A friend loves dogs (doesn't have one of her own at the moment), loves to take photos of them, and will go out of her way on occasion to take zillions of photos of dogs at agility trials and then upload them to my photo site so all my agility friends can get copies for no fee. How cool is that? Probably annoys the pro photographers who can take gorgeous photos and spend hours sorting and color correcting them and then charge $19 for a 4x6 print (!), but very many of hers are lovely, too.

Tika's start line stay: I started with a "sit" and used that for several years. Maybe one out of 7 or 8 times she took off early, maybe one out of 3 or 4 she stood up and took steps foward. Maybe a third of the time she lay down instead. I decided to just move her back a bit and start out with a down. She seems to "stay" a bit better that way. Still not perfect, but better.

Could anyone ever think that Tika isn't having a great time running out there on course? I love how bright her eyes get, how alert her ears.

You'd think from this that Tika has a super-fast dogwalk. Well--she does, in class, but in competition, she slows to a lope (?) on the down ramp, then to a walk, then LEAPS off the end and I just hope she's in the yellow zone when she does so.

People talk about tunnels being dog missile launchers. Never doubt it for a minute!

Tika runs onto the teeter, waits just before the yellow zone for it to get past the horizontal point, then runs off the end just as it hits the ground. It's not super-fast, but pretty fast. That's not how I trained it, but that's how it ended up working. I haven't used two-on/two-off or any other kind of hold for her on the teeter for years, and she never gets called for flyoffs. I can leave her there and run far afield, because she's developed her method and it's very consistent and I can rely on her completing it properly while I get into position for the next bit.

Boost is one of those toy-focused beasties who will tug on almost anything almost forever. Our competition ritual has her on the Purple Riot Tug until the dog before us runs, then I set that aside and we switch to tugging on the leashie. That excites her even more, having learned the ritual. When I tell her that's all for the leashie, she releases it and starts scoping out the field--she knows we're going into the ring and she gets to RUN RUN RUN! Just before that, I'm scoping out the field to be sure I remember the course.

Boost has an excellent start-line stay in a sit. Once in a while she can't bear it and takes off early, but not nearly as often as Tika did or still does. But I may have worked harder at it with Boost--in class and at home, I still try to remember at least once a session, maybe more, to reward her by returning to her and playing at the start line, or by tossing the toy behind her and releasing her to go get it there. But it's also true that, in all things, Boost's impulse control is much stronger than Tika's. (Note that I'm wearing my semifinalist polo from the Grand Prix national championships in 2000 or 2001, a memory with Jake.)

Boost does NOT slow down on the dogwalk until the very end. The only reason I'm even with her here at the beginning of the down ramp is because I was able to get a huge lead-out ahead of her.

Boost's teeter varies from darned fast to astonishing. The latter is when she runs to the end full tilt so it smashes to the ground and her front feet hit the ground right about the same time it does. She tends to be a little more cautious as time goes on, though; that kind of performance must be pretty jarring although it is also tremendously exciting to watch. I've had people tell me that they want a dog who does teeters like Boost does. That's usually after one of those spectacular teeter displays. But I CANNOT leave her while I run off to do something else; she may well fly off to catch up to me. We have worked on this. Sometimes life is just too exciting to want to come to a stop, however briefly.

Smaller dogs might be able to run or bounce through the weaves, but bigger dogs really do weave their bodies through there. Every organization in the agility universe that I know of has gone to 24"-spaced weaves (instead of the 20"/21" that USDAA still uses), and you can see why it's better to give the dogs' bodies more space, so they're not wrapped quite so tightly. I'll bet USDAA will go to 24" soon despite everything--the only possible reason any more to stick with the narrower spacing is sheer stubbornness. Oh--and just had a discussion on another blog that NADAC doesn't stake their weaves because they want to prove that the dog is actually weaving, not pushing the poles aside. I have many things to say about the safety issue of that, but you can see clearly that, with these staked poles, this large, fast dog definitely cannot push the poles aside.

(Preceding photos by Sarah Hitzeman.)

At the end of every run, Tika burns off the last of her adrenaline by letting out a growl-bark and dive-bombing my foot; she grabs the shoe and tugs and shakes furiously, growling intensely until I manage to gimp out of the ring and detach the dogmouth. I've told the story before of how she had never done it before until the middle of competition during her first year, and it took forever to extinguish it during the run. I tried for a while to redirect that energy to a toy or leash, but since the only place it happens is real trials, that's the only place I can work on it, and I've just given up. As long as we're past the finish line, we seem to be legal.

(Preceding photo by Richard Todd; very low-rez, partial photo screen capture. Will have to buy this photo, I guess, even at $19, because it's such an iconic Tika thing and it's really a nice photo of it.)