FRIDAY FUSION CONTEST…
This contest is now closed, but comments can still be viewed and added.
An Agility Ladder is called a “conditioning obstacle”. Besides just being different and fun, conditioning obstacles are used for helping dogs develop better coordination and confidence with their bodies, so they can better perform on regular agility obstacles. The ladder helps dogs learn they have back feet, and how to use them in a more caculated, accurate manner. It can improve your dog’s performance on regular agility obstacles that require stable footwork, such as the dogwalk, teeter, and even jumping (spacing themselves). To win this obstacle…
Tell us a story! Tell us why and how you can use the ladder for your training purposes.
- The deadline is Sunday night at midnight.
- The winner will be posted Monday morning.
- After they are all collected, an employee here will pick a random number to be the winner. If we get 45 entries, for example, they will pick a number between 1 and 45.
- To enter your answer, click on “comments” in the upper right corner.
- Don’t forget that you have to have registered on this website at least once in the past. You are then good for all friday contests!
My ACD and I take agility lessons, and I’ve been wanting to try a ladder for hind-quarter awareness. She is not comfortable with stairs, she actually rushes stairs almost frantically, and although she loves agility, she is not confident on contact equipment. I’m going to use a ladder to make her aware of using each leg separately, in hopes of building confidence.
I’m very new to agility. I started with my male 4yr old Sheltie Bernie. He is way too fast. I think this will teach him some control. I will also have my 3yr old Yogi use it. She has no self confidence at all. She will be starting some obedience training in 2 weeks.then hoprfully she will do agilty also.
When Stella was a puppy she was climbing the stairs from the back yard and must have changed her mind about going up or just lost her footing, but she fell down the stairs and landed on the concrete in the back yard. Even now that she is 18 months old, there are stairs that make her hesitate and some she won’t do. She is not crazy about heights and doesn’t like anything that moves under her feet, even slightly, like those metal doors on the sidewalk in front of every store here in Brooklyn. Needless to say, in our agility classes, she is not at all sure about the dogwalk and won’t even walk across the teeter when it is flat on the ground no matter how much she wants a piece of steak. We have been making some headway on the Wobble Board, Santa brought us from you for Xmas. And on walks around the neighborhood and in the park, I ask her to jump up and balance on benches and low walls and rocks and along fallen logs. I have been thinking that hind end work could really help build her confidence, so sometimes I take her for walks where there is a lot of fallen wood to step over. I don’t know if any of that helps as the wood is so randomly spaced and I actually have been thinking a ladder would be wonderful for her. Something we can work on anytime right in our back yard. It is such a shame she has this little phobia because she is so quick and willing and smart–—best dog in the world as far as we’re concerned. I do think she can and will conquer it if we can just work on getting her hind end in gear.
The ladder was the first exercise we did in our agility class. At home after that first week I got out my aluminum extension ladder to practice with Matilda. I’m thinking now I could add this piece of equipment to my backyard agility collection as another obstacle to which I could send Matilda. It wouldn’t be one she’d find on any other course, but it would be good practice to improve rear body awareness and self-confidence for the dog walk.
Safety is the #1 priority. I would love to have an agility ladder! I am a firm believer in starting all dogs in agility with learning “where are my feet!” A ladder is a great way to help dogs and their handlers gain this confidence and trust needed to succeed. Our dogs would jump for joy at the site of a new ladder!
I belong to two kennel clubs, being located between and equal distance from both…45 miles, I end up training by my self. I have made all the equipment that I have to use, jumps, table, dogwalk, A frame, teeter, weaves but have never gotten blue prints for the ladder. Not only could I use the ladder to help my dog to become aware and gain control of her feet (especially the back ones), but also to gain confidence.
We are pretty new to agility. Max being a Schnauzer is also pretty strong willed, and I think this piece of equipment would help with his focus. I have also recently started his big brother, Tito, and he is pretty skiddish on the dog walk, this could be the confidence builder we need.
I’m training two dogs for agility, and my standard poodle isn’t very sure of his back feet. He fell off the dog walk at a recent lesson, and is now nervous on that equipment, as am I for him. The ladder would be great to improve his footwork and both of our confidence levels. He loves agility and I don’t want him to be afraid or insecure–the ladder would be a great help!
Our agility club just started a beginners agility class. One of our “students” is a 7-month-old shepherd pup. Of course, we limit how much the puppies do. The agility ladder would be something she could do to help with her coordination and learning foot placement. Also, we have a couple of dogs that aren’t very confident on the low plank we use as a prep board for the dog walk. The ladder could help them in gaining confidence and foot placement skills.
We worked with an agility ladder in foundations class. It was great for developing better coordination and body awareness (especially for dogs that don’t seem to realize they have back feet and need to learn how to use them in a more calculated, accurate manner!) The agility ladder helps improve performance on regular agility obstacles that require stable footwork, such as the dogwalk, teeter, and even jumping (spacing themselves)….And my dogs love doing the ladder once they learn to pick up their feet in a smooth rhythm!!
i wouldn’t use it….I’d rather have a dog climb over branches, rocks and such like on nature walks. I like the unpredictability of footing for training such things.
BUT I would donate it to a raffle table for a regionals or nationals. 
We teach a fun experimental class called AGI-O which is an agility obedience combo. It is a great class for people who don’t want to compete in agility but still want to try some of the equipment and get more focus on their dog. We have a lot of fearful dogs join this class and the ladder is a great way to get their confidence up and teach them about using different parts of their body. I also want to try it out for dogs that do back ups, to teach them to back with a bit more rythem and accuracy for our freestyle class (not sure if it will work, but hey, worth a try). The acting dogs will probably like it too.
I love to use the ladder to warm up my dogs. I think it’s a fun for the dog. I have labrador retrievers, so I also think it’s good conditioning.
you could use the ladder to train your dog to climb like a k9 cops dogs dog.if i won this ladder i would use it to teach my dog to climb and space off her jumps.Say i had on jump and then i would space it and put the ladder in the middle leading to another jump (she can jump that).I would also see if she could jump the whole thing that is what i would use the ladder for!<3
I am a 4-H Dog project advisor in Northern Ohio. We have a great group of children that get together at least twice a month/year round to work on their dog projects. The parents of our group volunteer their time to help in field trips and assisting the children. They are learning and memorizing a lot from the skillathon hands-on kit and continue to learn in their project areas of You and Your Dog (the caring dogs; how to choose one, etc.), obedience, showmanship, rally, and agility. We would love to use your agility ladder in our training program. The children in our 4H group do not have the money to buy equipment so we improvise on some of the equipment and a ladder for our agility dogs would be great.
The ladder is the very first obstacle we used in beginning agility class. It is a confidence builder. It was interesting to watch the Chihuahuas use it, as they have a habit of skipping/hopping over things and not really placing their feet or slowing down long enough to pay attention to what they are really doing. They are a breed that generally goes through life at warp speed. It made them slow down and think! This would be a useful tool for anybody involved in agility, and of course I would love to have one!
I could use a ladder, I always wanted to have one, my dog has mild hip dysplasia in the right hip and she has been knocking the bars in competition. I have her in the preferred class now but I would love a ladder to give her some exercice for her rear awareness.
We belong to a dog club and agility it the prime dog sport that we promote in this club. We use the pvc ladder for our Intro-Agility classes…it teaches the new dogs that they “have back legs” and these legs need to follow the front ones! Our old ladder is wearing out and a new ladder would help train dozens and dozens of new agility dogs over the coming years.
Nico and I are rookies at agility. I think the ladder could be an excellent tool to help learn rear end awareness. Right now we are using a big kitchen pot to teach both front and rear paw/feet awareness.
I’d also like to share the ladder with my dog club friends. Equipment is expensive and what better way than to share it!
I never used a ladder with my five-year-old collie and wish I had.
He does the dog walk but sometimes lacks confidence. He loves
agility and just his love of it gets him over the dog walk
time after time.
My husband, now 70, has decided to take up agility for the first time
with his new golden retriever puppy. He sees how much fun Woody
and I are having and wants to join in. The ladder would provide
such a great solid foundation for his puppy and this agility
newbie who, I hope, will have the time of his life with his new dog.
I would use the ladder to work with my still somewhat green agility dog to help build more confidence. She has never liked the teeter and, therefore, has some issues with the dog walk as well. I believe the increased confidence she would get with the ladder would go a long way to helping her with her teeter fears.
We were well into our training and had Novice titles when my big lab had trouble on the dog walk. After watching several videos of his runs it was apparent that at speed his back legs were too far apart. Several short sessions on the PVC ladder resolved the issue.
I would use the ladder to help a new agility dog learn where there back feet are, to help them gain confidence on new obsticles, and to help with there coordination.
I would use the ladder with a more experienced agility dog to teach self control and footwork.
I am a 4-H Dog project leader in southern Indiana. We have 4 volunteer leaders who teach around 40 children every summer. We show them how to teach their dogs obedience, showmanship, and agility. We would love to use your agility ladder in our training program. We currently use an old wooden ladder that has been retired from its former job. It is heavy and rickety. We use the ladder for our beginning agility dogs. We use it as an obstacle to help the beginning dogs learn where to place their feet. We require the dogs to be fluid on the ladder first before allowing them on the dogwalk.