How to Make a Tyre Jump (old style)

Please read this first
In 2008 The Kennel Club has approved changes to the tyre and so the actual size and materials used here will no longer be suitable.  I've left this page for you to read for your interest only.  I have now constructed a new tyre jump that conforms to the new regs and you can find it here.

If your dog is new to agility he or she will need to learn the tyre jump under the supervision of an experienced trainer. The best way to prevent accidents and injuries is to train under controlled conditions. I never place the tyre at an angle or at the end of a line of jumps and I never let Jamie or Sasha take it at full speed.  Have fun.

The first few times Jamie  met the lollyframe tyre in the ring he wouldn't jump it at all.   He'd only ever practiced through the lolly tyre before, that's the one with the tyre set up on a post.   I didn't blame him.  He clearly thought the idea was to jump the little bar at the bottom and go under the tyre.  We didn't have access to a lollyframe tyre so the only thing to do was to make one. The tyre on this page is the second attempt.  The first was too embarrassing to go on the page.

First I bought eight eye bolts of the screw in kind and some waterproof duck tape. 
Getting a tyre was easy.  My friend Carol spotted it at the dump and brought it home for me.
The tyre measures 21 inches inside diameter and falls within the Kennel Club rules and the FCI rules.
Kennel Club Tyres must be a minimum of 18 inches and FCI must be 38cm to 60cm in diameter.  The new rules for the tyre will be a minimum of 457mm in January.
I also cut two pieces of 2"x2."

The 2"x"2" is inserted into the tyre and the eye bolts are screwed through the tyre into the wood.
The Kennel club rules say that the bottom half of the tyre should be filled so this is a good time to do it.  I filled mine with the collection of plastic carrier bags I didn't know what to do with.  Everything in our house has its use.
As you can see the tyre so kindly donated by Carol has a good deal of tread and the whole thing needed covering.  I nicked the hysband's roll of damp proof course for this and wound round the whole thing with duck tape.

The frame was made in exactly the same way as for the training jump without wings.
I bought some dunnages from the DIY shop to make it.  These are bits of wood that they don't know what to do with so they sell them at 50p each.  The dunnages were for the uprights and cross piece.  Each upright is approximately 42 inches high and is 4"x4" timber.  The cross piece is 6"x3/4" planed timber.   The feet are two pieces of 3 foot by 1inch pallette wood.
Under current UK Kennel Club regulations the centre of the aperture should be 3 feet from the ground.  Under FCI regulations it should be 80cm for standard dogs.

I screwed the rest of the eye bolts into the frame and lined them up with the eye bolts in the tyre.  Then I dropped some rods through the eye bolts and the whole tyre wobbled like crazy.   Time for a rethink and after trying numerous different rods I twisted the eye bolts round and lined them up the other way.   

With the tyre jump finished except for painting it was time to try it out on Jamie.  I'm not taking any chances with this one and its not going anywhere near his agiltiy course until he's seen it and been through it a few times.  Here he's in the more restricted area of the back garden.  He's not going to race at it.  Jamie is quite tall and is easily capable of hopping through the tyre from a standing start.  I show it to him first before I let him go.  He also knows I've got food about my person and he's a greedy pig.............

        That's why he goes through first time.