Netting and fence posts can be purchased directly from either -

* Modern Dog Sports also sell Jumps, Spray Paint, Target Boxes, and Traffic Cones. 
Both companies will be happy to help and advise you on prices, postage and packaging arrangements, and accept cheques and all major credit cards.

The netting acts not only as a barrier to stop the dogs wandering off and losing their concentration, it also provides a safe and secure area for the dog to relax (see reading the newspaper) as no passing dog can get near it.  It also provides a visual break to the dog without blocking out its vision all together so that it unable to see what is happening outside the area, should it become apprehensive.

The dog soon learns to associate the netted training area as a safe and fun place to go as it plays the Dog-Games in this environment.  The strong concentration of the scents of the other dogs that have trained there (including their scents of relaxed, content and unstressed pheromones) makes the enclosure very interesting for the dog to smell and explore before the training begins. These "relaxed" pheromones often have a remarkable calming effect on over excited or stressed dogs that enter the training lanes afterwards, and the influences of these scents can linger for days and even weeks afterwards. See Where and When for further information about the training area.

The plastic netting is manufactured and sold in 50m lengths (164ft) therefore a Dog-Games training lane requires 2 x 50m rolls (see diagram). We recommend using plastic garden/plant ties (see below) to join the pieces of netting together so that the dog cannot get through the gaps. These can also be used to secure the netting entrance once the dog is in the training lane.

A further lane can be added later on when doing distraction training in Silver, Gold and Platinum levels of the Dog-Games.  You will notice that the second roll of netting does not need to be cut up into as many small pieces as it would for setting up one lane. These diagrams are just suggestions of how the netting can be arranged to provide suitable training compounds - please feel free to make your lanes in any way you please!

Some trainers prefer to have three training lanes when teaching Dog Games, particularly when there are a lot of dogs to train and there are two trainers available to work at the same time. One trainer can use Lane One while the other works in Lane Three. Because there are two barriers of netting with a 15ft distance as well between the two dogs, most dogs are not distracted by the presence of another dog being trained in the other lane. However, I strongly recommend that the first (and most important) session of Recall Starters should only be done when there are no other dogs in any of the other compounds.

Another benefit of having three lanes is that some dogs have great difficulty coping with other dogs nearby when they are attempting the Silver stages of a Game (eg Recall Silver). In these situations the dogs can do their Silver training in Lanes One and Three and progress to Lane Two when they have become accustomed to the movement of the other dog in the next lane. However, it is quite permissible for dogs to pass their Silver awards in the two outside lanes if the dog is only just capable of coping with that situation at that level. We do not want dogs to become over excited and stressed.

The netting needs to be held up with a number of fence posts.  These can either be plastic fence posts from a farm equipment shop or hard wearing metal posts (available from both suppliers listed at the top of this page) which will need a lump hammer to fix them in the ground.

It is strongly recommended that metal tent pegs (which can be bought from your local camping shop) be used to hold the netting down in between the fence posts to prevent dogs learning how to slip under the netting and chase after the passing cat etc.  Be warned - once a dog learns how to slip under a fence it never forgets and will take on the challenge of "escaping" at any opportunity, just for the heck of it!

The start/finish poles can be made out of a variety of different things -

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