Simple Jump Wings

If you want some dog agility jumps for the garden it's easy enough to make a few jump wings.  For this jump I've gone all posh and bought new timber.  This is unheard of for me and I can only assume I'm going soft in my old age.   Anyway, the wood cost around £6 and making the wings is simplicity itself. 

This is the wood all laid out so that you can see where each piece goes.  I used very light wood but you can use heavier timber if your dogs are likely to bash into things and generally knock them around.  

The upright is 50mm x 50mm.  The light pieces for the frame are only 12mm x 25mm and the cross piece which goes across the bottom of the upright is 75mm x 19mm.
                                                             
                                                           

The first thing to do is to make up the side frame. 
Nail the three upright pieces measuring 45cm and 55cm to the
40cm piece of frame along the bottom,  as shown in the photo.
 

The bit at the end on the right hand side needs to be set down by the same width as the cross piece.  (That's the bit that was 75mm x 19mm).  The end part of my frame is therefore set down by 75 mm. 

The next step is to nail the upright onto the frame.  Leave a little overlap when you nail the bottom of the frame to the upright.  This is because it is going to rest on the cross piece. 

Take the piece of wood you are using to put diagonally across the top of the frame and nail it on.  If you let it overlap you can trim it neatly to fit and it saves a lot of measuring and grumbling if it doesn't quite go right. 

     Finally nail the cross piece to the upright so that the wing stands up.
     And there you have a jump wing.  All you need is another one, some jump cups, a pole and some paint and you have a nice garden jump for your dogs, and your visitors' dogs and visiting children who for some reason love pretending to be agility dogs. 

You might be able to think of a better way of putting the jump together by doing the nailing in a different order.  That's the beauty of making stuff.  You can fiddle and alter to your heart's content.  Have fun.

Pictured below is the finished jump all painted with blue gloss and complete with jump cups set at 35cm, 45cm and 65cm.  Sasha's doing a lovely wait.  I did put the jump up to full height but she ran under it.  I also tried to take a picture of her actually jumping but all I got was her tail.  There's also a blurry picture of Jamie jumping the new garden jump.  (Well you try taking photos of excited dogs when you're trying to recall them over a new jump.)

Jump Cups

The jump cups I used were kindly sent to me as a free sample from Agility Dogs Jump4 Joy.  John and Teresa had these cups specially designed by engineers and they are moulded in heavy duty dark blue ABS plastic. They have 2 screw holes to enable you to fix them to your jumps securely.  They are available from their ebay shop.