How to Choose Dumbbells for Dogs Training
Obedience Dumbbells for Dogs Training
Thickness of the dowel
A dog carries a dumbbell just behind the teeth. A dog's mouth must fully interlock, but the dumbbell should not "roll" in the mouth. Put your dog on the table, so you can easily see the jaws, and experiment with different thickness of the bar to pick up the right size.
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The majority of obedience equipment manufacturers produce it in several standard versions. A dumbbell can be made of 3 parts (two discs and the crossbar) or be a one-piece solid block.
If you take a one-piece dumbbell, then you will be limited in the choice of thickness, unless you are lucky to order it custom made.
Fortunately, most of the standard sizes fit the majority of dogs. I have a slightly overgrown sheltie, and 1/2 inch crossbar fits it perfectly.
Width and height
Other dumbbell's measurements that should fit your dog are the width between the discs and height of the disks.
A dumbbell should be adjusted in the width so that there is about 1/5 inch left on each size of the muzzle.If your dog has raw lips or large flews, you can increase the gap to 3/5 inch. Make sure that the dog will not be biting its lips when picking up a dumbbell from the ground.
However, if a gap is too big, then it can provoke your dog to chew the dumbbell, he will not be able to hold it tight or might even drop it from its mouth, for example, when jumping. I also found that the shorter bar makes the dog focus on a task, which makes the exercise more accurate.
The discs should be high enough to be seen in the mowed grass, but not too high to prevent the dog from seeing the environment when he holds a dumbbell.
I think the latter is more important than the former. Wondering why? Because if the dog does not see a dumbbell, I expect that it will be searching for it until he finds it.
With a small dog, especially when the show is out-of-doors, you will often encounter grass, where the dumbbell cannot be seen, even if its ends were sparkling. The dog must find it.
However, if the ends are so big that interfere with the view, the dog will not be able to see the barrier and will shake his head or roll the dumbbell in his mouth to see the road. Luckily, the majority of manufactured dumbbells fit in the width and height quite well.
Explore IPO Dog Training Equipment in our store where we offer a wide choice of dog training dumbbells of different colours and sizes and buy the most perfect dumbells for your dog.
Author: Julia Bosenko, experienced manager and customer support ForDogTrainers UK dealing with your needs & questions.
