Box Method – Flattening the Box on the Aframe – Bad Dog Agility Academy

Box Method – Flattening the Box on the Aframe

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  • Marty R says:
    July 18, 2023 at 10:19 am

    Bolo and I are finally back to some limited agility after his bilateral shoulder surgery last year. I decided to convert to a running aframe and think we are close to fading more of the box. There’s dead time in this 2 minute video, but fast scrubbing will get you through.
    https://youtu.be/2do4TQKUzs0

  • Leslie Wood says:
    August 23, 2022 at 9:47 am

    Hi Jenn. This is in response to your comment from the previous lesson. I flattened the box and added a jump before and after.

    https://youtu.be/Y4QCK-DgfRY

    • Jennifer Crank says:
      August 24, 2022 at 6:45 am

      Excellent! These look very good, particularly the first and last rep in this video. From here out, keep the box flat and try sliding the box just a few inches (literally 2-3″) lower on the aframe. She is hitting nicely in the yellow but if we can get her to reach just a little bit more, we will build in some insurance.

      I’d keep the box on as you beginning to sequence for handling and then in about 2-3 weeks we can look at switching to just the top of the box so it is acting more as a stride regulator as opposed to the whole box.

      • Leslie Wood says:
        August 30, 2022 at 8:27 pm

        Thank you! I’m so happy with our progress: https://youtu.be/pmD6goJDZME

        Should I slowly raise the height of the frame over the next 2-3 weeks or wait to raise it until after we switch to the stride regulator?

        • Jennifer Crank says:
          September 6, 2022 at 9:18 pm

          WOW!! Super!

          I think you could do it either way. I would probably switch to the single stride regulator and then start to raise it up. Taking off the other three side of the box can happen in a single session. If it goes well, you could probably raise the aframe up a bit in the same session you fade the box.

  • Callie Cromwell says:
    November 9, 2021 at 9:14 pm

    Question on the placement of the box on the aframe. I see that the top bar is above the contact line. Is that the same for all size dogs?

    • Jennifer Crank says:
      November 11, 2021 at 6:31 pm

      Generally, yes, but I’ve been known to adjust for some dogs. Your goal is for the dog to aim for the center of the box so you want to position the box around where you want the second hit. It is coming for people to put the top of the box at the same point the contact zone starts but I have found this to often encourage a hit too low on the aframe.

      • kathrynnicolich@gmail.com says:
        July 24, 2023 at 6:01 pm

        Piggy backing off of Callie’s question – how do you decide where you want the dog to hit the contacts? I assume it has to do with stride length but any specific insight would be appreciated!

        • Jennifer Crank says:
          July 27, 2023 at 10:19 pm

          I don’t know that there is any certain formula to determine where the dog should hit. You don’t want them too high in the contact zone as you don’t have any insurance/wiggle room but also you don’t want to make the judge think. Let the dog be so solid in the contact the judge knows immediately they were in.

          You also don’t want the dog to be too low in the contact zone as it will make the exit off the aframe awkward. You want a natural decent. If you ask their hit to be too low, they will often choose to skip that last stride and jump.

  • halcyonshelties says:
    January 22, 2021 at 12:32 pm

    How quickly do you move from 5 ft to 5.6 ft? My sheltie is successful 100 percent so far at 5.6, but she takes 2 or 3 smaller steps after coming over the apex and before bouncing thru the box. She was more confident at the 5 ft level, so maybe I moved up too quickly? I did one successful session at 5 ft, then one session at 5.3, then moved up to 5.6 where I noticed more steps after the apex and before the box. Do I need to just do more reps at 5.6 until she gets her striding perfected, or do I need to lower the frame again and for how long and what increments?

    • Jennifer Crank says:
      January 23, 2021 at 5:37 am

      I would say to do more at 5’3”. Adding strides can be for two reasons; 1) confidence. If they are unsure they won’t power over the apex like a dog who is really comfortable. 2) size. How big is your sheltie? Sometime the small dogs have a harder time getting the reach over the top to do two hits. Vento is about 14.5”.

      Do you have any video I could look at to,offer suggestions? I’d love to see a few reps at each height. But I’m general, lower the aframe for a bit longer.

  • LauraL34 says:
    January 6, 2021 at 7:55 pm

    I noticed the aframe was lower in the previous lesson. At what point did you raise it? ….. Would you raise it while still having the box with height?

    • Jennifer Crank says:
      January 7, 2021 at 10:03 am

      In this video the aframe is at 5’. Yes, I work the aframe up to full height before I remove the box. Frankly, I don’t remove the box for awhile. I will get the aframe to full height, add speed and handling, put it in sequences, and make sure that those things happen with a 80% success rate or higher before moving on.

      • LauraL34 says:
        January 7, 2021 at 10:23 am

        Ok, thanks. Do you raise the aframe before flattening the box?

        This is a ways off for me, but do you “disassemble” the box piece by piece as in the Rachel Sanders dvd? I have also seen people switch some of the white pvc with yellow (painted or taped) to help make the box “disappear”.

        • Jennifer Crank says:
          January 10, 2021 at 7:03 pm

          I prefer to flatten the box before raising the aframe. I actually prefer to flatten the box as early as possible.

          Yes, I do disassemble the box but I do it quickly. The box is acting as a stride regulator so I will normally take off the bottom and two sides all at the same time. This just leaves a single piece of PVC. This often gets left on for awhile. I have painted a box yellow in the past and I am certainly not opposed to the idea. I would say it depends on how natural the dogs striding is and how much effort it takes to fade the box.

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