# Indoor training- in your home



## wildo

Anyone ever considered putting down artificial grass in their home for an indoor/in house training room? This is something I've considered doing for a long time... Just found that there is a fake grass place in Indy:

SYNLawn® Pet System | artificial grass products safe for pets

Wouldn't that be super cool!? With winter and muddy season fast approaching, I'm thinking that would be so sweet. I emailed them for a quote and sample.


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## wildo

Nobody? You guys must think this is a dumb idea or something. Have you never wished you could just wake up and walk into your climate controlled agility training room!? (Well- it'd be super great if I actually had air conditioning; not a big concern for winter training though)


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## gsdraven

Why would you need grass vs mats? Just curious.


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## Jax08

I don't have a room large enough! LOL I"m sure my family would frown upon finding the couch in the kitchen and jumps in the living room!


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## I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO

I don't have a room large enough either. My garage is 500 sq ft, so I suppose that could work, but I live in Florida so I can train outside year round


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## wildo

gsdraven said:


> Why would you need grass vs mats? Just curious.


Cause grass would be so cool! haha... That is the only reason.



I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO said:


> I don't have a room large enough either. My garage is 500 sq ft, so I suppose that could work, but I live in Florida so I can train outside year round


My room is 20' x 12' so only 240sqft. But that would be big enough to train contacts (at least in 2o2o) and one-jump drills. The main goal is just to have a room dedicated to basic training. Something that I don't put a bunch of crap in. I'm good at accumulating useless "stuff."


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## AgileGSD

Definitely would be very cool! I've thought about it but don't have the room. A friend of mine set her basement up with matting for flyball practice. And I've seen video of people who have set up indoor practice spots with matting for agility/obedience. Matting might be a better option unless the turf is well padded.

If you're doing 2o2o you could use a contact trainer: http://www.affordableagility.com/contacttrainer.htm


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## TaraM1285

I use my basement for indoor training, but I don't have turf down. Just the regular carpet and carpet padding. We don't do a whole lot of jumping, mostly weaves and tricks so I don't worry about the surface too much. I wouldn't do turf just because I'm going to try and sell this house when we move in four years and don't think that would be a high selling point.


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## middleofnowhere

What? You don't think artificial turf would do anything? They could use it as a putting green...


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## TaraM1285

LOL middle! Now there's an idea!


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## msvette2u

I often thought about putting actual turf in my home because of the "weenie dogs"...one of whom can't seem to "hold it" beyond 6am!!


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## wildo

Gross. Not sure how you'd clean that up...


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## wildo

So that company finally sent me some samples, and they are AWESOME!! It would be awesome to have a room in this stuff. I think I might go for the cheapest variety (which happens to have the most traction). I am a bit concerned about traction- but in a 12' x 20' room it's not like she will be moving super fast...


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## Caledon

How would you get all the dog hair out out that? Would be hard to vacuum.

Having a dedicated spot would be great. Dog training is a hobby/passion and it takes up space.

I'd love to have a dedicated spot of my own to train. It's a secrete desire of mind when we move to property to have a training room either in the basement, or in some sort of outbuilding. I've not shared this with my husband though, as he thinks I'm way to obsessed as it is, and I'm no way near people that are really serious.


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## wildo

I've not considered the dog hair issue... I will have to ask the company what they recommend for cleaning options.


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## MaggieRoseLee

Will there be matting for additional padding underneath?

Maybe just good carpeting would work?


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## wildo

Yes, there would be at least a carpet pad underneath. But regular carpet- way too boring! :rofl:


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## Lilie

I have a large game room in my house. I keep all of my horse stuff in it. It also has an door that leads to the outside in it. I could see using that as a training room. It would be cool. Not sure about the astro turf type flooring though. I think it would be too hard to clean. I think I might utilize rubber mats, or maybe indoor outdoor carpet. 

Wildo - you'll have to get one of those wall paper murals and put it up too. That would be too cool.


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## gsdraven

Lilie said:


> Wildo - you'll have to get one of those wall paper murals and put it up too. That would be too cool.


One of the sky? That would be a really cool room! It'd be like you're outside but not!


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## wildo

A mural would be ultra cool, but I just looked into it and it would cost practically as much as a competition A-Frame!


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## Shaina

For the turf, the boarding facility I work at has 10,000 sqft of outdoor area that has turf that looks almost identical to that in your picture. We use big push brooms like you'd use for dirt on a driveway and it works very well to pull up hair.


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## wildo

Wow- what a nice facility! Thanks for the tip on the push broom! (And I feel bad for you having to sweep 10000sqft!)


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## wildo

My agility facility just replaced their old turf with new(er) turf. I'm so lucky that I sent the facility owner an email and she's willing to hook me up with some of the old turf for only 50 cents a square foot. Sweet!! Sounds like I will be able to get my piece next Sunday. So pumped!


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## wildo

That's 310.5 sqft of soccer turf- 11.5' wide wrapped up on a 14' 2x4 that I hauled 20.7 miles. 










I was supposed to get a 12' width chunk so it is wall to wall, but that's not what I was given. At $0.41/sqft, I'm not complaining!! :rofl:


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## wildo

Woohoo!! I haven't measured that room since I bought the place years ago. The room is 11' 7 1/2" and the turf is 11'9"! Sweet!!


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## PaddyD

These are all great ideas but unfortunately my wife thinks the dog is just a dog and the indoors is for people (dogs allowed) and the outdoors is for training. Go figure ... what's up with HER ?!


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## Rerun

aren't you worried the used turf from a training facility will stink?? Surely many dogs have had potty accidents over the years and just general...doggie odor?


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## wildo

No, I am not concerned about those things.


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## wildo

Got the turf installed today! I do still have some crap to figure out what to do with... So much stuff.


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## wildo

I'm working on a lightweight staircase that will go in the room for contact training. I'll also be building a 36" x 36" platform that both the staircase and a dogwalk ramp will hook to. The platform will be hinged to the wall so it can fold up when not in use. With this, I'll have a lot of contact training possibilities but still be able to utilize nearly all of the floor space when I want. The dogwalk ramp is 2' from the wall so that my tunnel can go against the wall and we can work obstacle discrimination.










Lightweight stairs nearly complete:









Pimg approved!


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## wildo

Just a little more work. I need to put in the eye bolts to hold the dogwalk plank. I *probably* will paint it all, but then again- I am not sure I care that much.


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## wildo

Got the dogwalk plank attached at lunch today! Just have a little bit more work to do and it's all done!


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## MaggieRoseLee

Well done!


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## gsdmom1

That is Awesome......now you can train 2o2o on the stairs and the DW.....


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## wildo

You got it Marisa! We'll start on the stairs and then back chain the dog walk.


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## TaraM1285

Fancy!


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## TaraM1285

BTW, that setup looks suspiciously like you might be thinking about working on some 2on/2off...did you decide against trying running contacts?

ETA: Somehow I completely missed the above comment of your plan. Disregard!


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## wildo

Yeah- I am wishywashy on it, to be honest. I still would like to do a running a-frame and I think it would be ultra cool to have a running dogwalk as well. However, I certainly don't have the room to teach a running dogwalk inside. I go back and forth on it constantly. Every time I think I have solidified what I want to train, I think of some other reason that I might like the other way... 

What is _definite_ is that I won't be trialing anymore until I have a trained contact performance- whatever that may be. So for now, I'll train a 2o2o on the teeter and dogwalk (both things I can train indoors over the winter) and I'll train the foundations to a running a-frame (Sanders' Method).


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## TaraM1285

I must say, as a green handler, I love that I did 2on/2off contacts with Tara. There are a few handling challenges in training that we've run into that as a very green team I would have had much more trouble with running contacts. And to be honest, she loves her 2on/2off contacts - I think that I rewarded them so highly that they are not demotivating (I essentially used SG's target method). And I rarely do it, but I can fast release her without losing the criteria also. Most of the teams I've trained with that have running contacts seem to have a lot of difficulty maintaining that criteria, but I don't know what training method they were using.

Depending on how I have developed as a handler, I think I will probably consider running contacts for my next dog. I won't change my approach for Tara since the criteria is so clear for her right now, and I don't want to muddy the waters. I am intrigued by the idea of running contacts though!

I'll be curious to see how your A-frame experience goes, so I hope you keep detailed notes for us!


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## wildo

More work complete on my training room. With Pimg's sprain (that's what I'm choosing to call it- here's hoping!) I can't work the stairs right now anyway. I also need the floor space for the "Recallers" course I'm signed up for. So I thought I'd upload some pics showing how everything folds up!

I put some shelf brackets on the wall to hold the dogwalk plank, the platform folds up, and the stairs sit against the back wall. Omitting the staircase, I've reclaimed 100% of the floor space:









Here is how the platform folds up:









The support leg for the platform folds up and is pinned in place:









The staircase sticks out only 1' from the wall:









As mentioned in this thread- those wall murals are CRAZY expensive. So I opted for two 4' x 3' mirrors and a 4' x 3' whiteboard for keeping track of training progress. You can also write on a mirror with dry erase markers, so that's 12' of writable space! Plus the mirrors make the room feel bigger:


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## MaggieRoseLee

Everything looks great but I especially love the mirrors and dry erase board! REally should help with recording your progress and training successes!


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## SitUbuSit

I love this project! I can't believe you got it all done in a matter of weeks! Pimg is one lucky dog to have her own dedicated training room.


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## marshies

Endless admiration for this training room.


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