Weekend Project: Organizing Agility Equipment

Over the years, our agility equipment has slowly taken over our backyard.  With the recent addition of our $40 jumps, we had to do something to get everything out of the grass.  The pieces of equipment that posed the biggest problems were the weave poles, the tunnel, and the two new jumps.

 We needed to keep them somewhere dry, and preferably off the ground, to prevent mold and spiders from living in them. The happiest option would have been getting a special shed just for agility equipment and dog related training tools, but that was also the most expensive option, and we had a limited budget.

After walking around the yard, we decided that the best spot was the wall next to the back door.  This wall is under the porch overhang, so it provides protection from the elements, and is in a convenient location for us to be able to access our agility equipment.

So, with a quick trip to the hardware store, our dream came to life.   Here is what we did, and how we did it.

Materials:

• A screw gun, with a drill bit and a Phillips head screw driver bit
• screws
• a level
• utility brackets, these came with screws
• bicycle hanging brackets, these ones have foam padding

Total Project Cost: $20 (we already had the screw gun, screws, and level)

We decided to hang the tunnel first.  To mark where to hang it so that we could easily reach it, we slipped the bicycle hanging brackets into the tunnel and spaced them so that the tunnel sat snugly in them.  Then, Olivia heaved the tunnel up and held it in place, while I quickly marked the holes for the screws with a pencil.

The next step was to drill the pilot holes into the wall at each pencil dot.  Once that was completed, Olivia held each bicycle bracket in place while I put the screws in the wall.  Once the first screw is in place, the bracket can be scooched back and forth until it is level. Don't worry if they aren't 100% level, remember: you're hanging agility equipment, not artwork.

 

Now that we had the tunnel happily in place, we moved on to hanging our new jumps.  We hung these much the same way as the tunnel, except that instead of needing one person to hold the jumps while the other marked the wall, we each took one bracket.  With one jump across the brackets, we held them against the wall and put a level on the jump to make sure it was hanging flat.  Then we each marked the spots for the holes and drilled.  We then screwed the brackets into place and hung our jumps.

 

The last problem we had was how to secure the weave poles.  We wanted to be able to leave the stick-in-the-ground end (if you don't know what I'm talking about go here) on the poles, but scratch up the porch. And, of course, we wanted them to fit prettily with our newly organized tunnel and jumps.

So, we hunted around until we found this! It was originally intended to be an umbrella stand...

When we bought it, it was a mottled red-black, but we didn't like it, so we spray painted it robin's egg blue. Now we have a nice, neat back porch and our agility equipment can stay safe when it rains!

-- Emma & Olivia