Recently Daisy Peel put up a podcast on equipment safety. Linda Mecklenburg wrote a blog post as well. Both Daisy and Linda talk about things that I hadn't considered as well as things that I had. Guy Blancke also has some pictures of some questionable equipment on one of his webpages. Some of the equipment is so bad that I think that I would have pulled my dog from the event.
I started out with what I now consider to be unsafe practice equipment. My jumps were the equivalent of stick in the ground weave poles with bolts holding up the bars. At that time though I had a steady dog and we were not doing tight turns. We expected the dog to jump near the center of the bar. Things have dramatically changed since then. My dogs are running faster and they are turning tightly and slicing jumps.
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| This is Taari's Mom Angel posing with some of her ribbons. Note the bolts on the vertical post as well as the horizontal bar holding the ribbons. This bar was really one of the vertical ones for a jump. |
Nessa has received a cut under the eye from to a metal jump cup. She was lucky.
Currently most of my jumps have the jump cup strips on them. I am in the process of buying a couple of jumps that I think will be even safer than the ones that I have. Once I get them I will post some pictures.
I feel that I should not have to make handling decisions based on whether or not I think that the jump is safe for a tight turn or for that matter because of any equipment safety concerns.
Before I forget I am very happy that years ago the AAC implemented a rule that weave poll stripes were to be painted on and tape was not to be used. Dogs were rubbing against the tape and this was also causing cuts on their faces under their eyes. Organizations are making positive changes and I hope that this continues.
I hope to find more time this winter to post more about equipment safety.
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