Cavaletti?

Cavelletti are a good training tool that we use in horses to maximize stride and increase awareness. In dogs it is useful for the same reasons. Caution though, you have to place cavelletti properly or you can injure your dog. It is not something that the dog should ever have to jump to go over. The best way to know you have it in the right position both height and stride is to measure the distance from the hock to the ground and also the height of the dog at the withers. The maximum distance in height of the cavelletti should be half the distance from hock to ground and stride should be the height at the withers. Always start with a warm up of 5 - 10 minutes total of walking then trotting in circles in both directions. We always start the stride at 2/3 of the measurement of the dog's height and height at 1/4 distance from hock to ground increasing to the maximum over a few weeks. We use small cones that we put holes into and then dowelling. I tape the dowelling with bright colours to allow the dog to see it better. You want to be on as even a surface as possible. Start with doing only a few cavelletti for no more than five minutes alternating sides evenly and gradually increase the time. Make sure that you cool the dog down afterwards by walking out.
 
Right now the Cavaletti in class is on the ground. It's the ladder type. But, I just watched a Youtube video w/ a Cavaletti using cones. I like the idea of making one w/ cones and dowels because it can double as a jump. I never knew cones came in so many sizes. What size do you use? Here's the video I watched:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z8aOY2ydbA
 
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