Before you commit to expensive agility equipment, it is probably wise to find out if your dog has any interest in, or aptitude for jumping. Devising a few starter jumps to encourage and entertain your dog can be really simple. Use your imagination and be creative with whatever is on hand. Just follow a few common sense safety tips as you progress. Understanding your dog's body language will help you agility train your dog.

Depending on the size of the dog, you can turn picnic table benches or chaise lounges on their sides and have usable jumps. For higher jumps, use panels from large cardboard boxes, propping them up lightly so they will fall if the dog hits them. Place a broom handle between two cinderblocks and you have a beginner's bar jump.

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Have You Been Searching For Dog Agility Jumps?

For many of us, the first time we see an exuberant border collie blazing round the agility course, or a dynamo of a terrier soaring over the jumps, we are simultaneously amazed and captured by the sport of agility. When you know your dog has that ebullient spirit and the potential to excel, we offer a variety of Agility Jumps, including hoop jumps, (a tire suspended in a frame), simple bar jumps, double and triple jumps for more of a challenge, panel jumps and broad jumps to add to your agility dog's repertoire. Our designers favor lightweight PVC jumps and aluminum jumps for simple setup and easy carrying. Agility is great training, entertainment and exercise that can get your dog into great shape... looking healthy and acting happy. Click on the links below for details.
 

Make Your Own Agility Jumps

If your makeshift jumps are a hit, you can progress to making your own jumps. You can construct an inexpensive bar jump with a couple of lightweight posts that stick in the ground and are available at farm supply stores. They come in heights up to four feet. Pound them into the ground a little less than four feet apart. Buy a four-foot length of thin (half-inch) PVC pipe; this will be the horizontal bar the dog jumps over. You want it to fall off if the dog hits it, so don't attach it to the vertical poles. Instead, clip clothespins, alligator clips or large paper binder clips around the uprights to provide a ledge on which to rest the PVC pipe. A ledge that slopes downward won't work; one with a slight lip works best.

The dog should only jump in the direction which will cause the PVC pipe to fall off the uprights. You can buy more horizontal bars and clips for a multi-barred jump, and you can hang a sheet from the top bar for a jump that appears to be solid but still has plenty of give.

For larger, faster dogs, you can create more substantial jumps using larger PVC pipe, but if the upright pipes are too large you'll have to devise another way to hang the horizontal bar. Some people drill holes in the large diameter uprights and then hang the horizontal bar from pegs placed in the holes. This works, but unless the pegs are very short the bar won't fall off as easily as it should.

The best solution is to use "jump cups" which are rounded cups in which the horizontal pole rests. When knocked, the pole rolls right out. You can make a jump cup by taking a PVC end pipe and cut it into lengthwise quarters, then screw what's left of the cap part into your vertical pole.

If you don't have any land into which you can pound your posts, you'll have to add legs to stabilize the jump. The easiest way to do this is to add a four-way elbow fitting that enables you to place the upright section in the top of the fitting and attach one-and-a-half-foot PVC pipe "legs" to the front, back and sides. (You can also run a pipe between the two uprights to connect them at the base.) The greatest challenge here is finding the four-way fitting; if your hardware store doesn't carry them, a PVC supply company will.