Practice Drills at my Dog Club

I finally finished a project I started last spring, getting permission and setting up a section of our club's field for PRACTICE DRILLS.  I screwed a weather-proof letter box (like realtors use in front of houses for sale) to a tree, and the plan is each month or so I'll put a laminated copy of some Practice Drill in it for all our agility members to use.  I found 4 sets of sturdy colored tumblers in blue, green, orange and pink (4 for $1) at Dollar General, and used 2" stick on numbers 1-12 on each set.  I'm starting with Clean Run's series of the Back Yard Dog . . . . . I have 4 years worth of those so I won't run out soon.   I color-coded each course on the article to match the tumblers. This is probably only doable in fall-early spring when the grass isn't growing and the course can stay up for awhile.  I can recycle the laminated copies (I have a laminating machine so it's not that expensive) every few years if I run out of time to find new ones.

I tried the first 4 sequences myself a few days back, first with Maxie then changing the bar height for Lucky, in beautiful pre-fall weather, and it was quite a workout! The dogs enjoyed it and were jealous for their turns.  Noticing that a little table would be convenient, I brought one of my plastic ones from home.

Alas, I went out there for class last night and someone had already removed the tunnel and knocked over/moved some of the numbers.  When I got home I sent out notice to club members about the project, and added a polite line about not disturbing things.  Today I ordered some tent stakes (which I found cheap on amazon.com) and I'm going to poke a hole in the bottom center of each tumbler (with a hot ice pick) and secure each tumbler to the ground.  Hopefully this will deter dogs, wind, and people from moving them around.

And the little project keeps growing.  I am now thinking of a way to keep track of who uses it.  If it isn't much used, it won't be worth the effort.

Upwards and onward!