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Saturday, October 17, 2009

Agility Dog Jumps - Easy & Cheap!

 

Had a thought to get Sonoma (border collie) back into her agility training at home. Looked around on the Internet and found quality jumps in the range of $50-60 each plus $15 shipping. Wow. I know I wanted quality, stability and long-lasting
construction, but $70 for a PVC jump toy? Went down to Lowe's and bought a load of 1" PVC, bunch of T's, endcaps & cement --- this couldn't be that hard.

I had the whole design going in my head. I wanted to start off with a set of fixed height jumps. (These are easily converted with a set of jump cups to adjustable jumps) So, I used a handheld PVC cutter, Sharpie and a measuring level, and I quickly built my first jump. I didn't cement anything yet in order to make proper design adjustments.

 




Calculating the retail cost, each jump used the following:

(8) - 1" PVC T's
(6) - 1" PVC Endcaps
(3) - 48" 1" PVC
(4) - 4" 1" PVC
(4) - 12" 1" PVC
(2) - 20" 1" PVC
(2) - 8/12/16/18" 1" lengths (depending on height you want)
(1) - 7 pieces of various colored Electrical tape.

Total cost -
PVC T's - $4.24
PVC END - $2.40
PVC PIPE - $3.60 (3 x 9' length of 1" pipe per jump - approx $1.20 each pipe)
ELEC TAPE - $0.26 (amount used prorated)

Grand Total - $10.50

Much nicer than most jumps I have seen being sold, and so much cheaper to boot!
I built 4 of them and boy, it was a smashing success! She did incredible on them.
Video to follow soon! :) Go SONOMA!!! :)

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