sandbox

[Toto'smom]

Hi everyone. I am a newbie & am owned by my first cairn. His name is Toto (real original) and he is 7 months old. I have been reading alot of the posts here & find it interesting that alot of your stories could be mine.

I have been thinking about building Toto a sandbox so maybe he will do his digging there instead of my yard. Do any of you have any advice about building one...how deep...any certain kind of sand...etc. etc.

Also I am really interested in the agility training & need advice about how to go about it. Do I take him to a class or can i train him myself. I have only had him for a month & he is soooooo hardheaded We have sit down very well but he almost refuses to lay down or come when i call him. The people I got him from let him live outside all the time so i don't think he got alot of attention & he got to do just whatever he wanted whenever he wanted so i know it will probably take me a little longer than usual to train him.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks Belinda

[bradl]

I bet you could hardly go wrong building a sandbox. I heard of a fellow who lived in a high-rise and kept a cut-down cardboard box from an appliance as a sandbox. (It may have been filled with plain dirt - not sure.)

I don't know much about agility but my guess is that a good approach is to teach some basic obedience first - a reliable sit, stay, down, and recall would be the bare minimum I would think. I personally would take an agility class so I didn't teach all sorts of bad habits like I normally do

There are some good articles on agility training in the Sporting Cairn forum. That would be place for agility training questions. Have fun!

[haines641]

Hi Belinda,

This works for Max and I discovered it quite by accident. I have a children's swimming pool in my yard that I use as a "holding bed" for flowers...that is, I used to. This pool, filled with potting soil, works very well as a digging place. Max loves it and the potting soil is relatively clean.

Debby

[wags]

This may be a silly question- I have been thinking of getting a sandbox for Wes to dig in, but I'm afraid he will pee and poop in it.

[kayharley]

Hi Toto's mom... I also find myself interested in the agility for my Cairns. I recently purchased a 15' tunnel and a jump and made a hoop jump from some stuff I bought from home depot. It's nothing great but the start of what I hope next year to be a Cairn Playground.

It took about 5 minutes before Madison was jumping over the rails, through the hoop and in the tunnel. I enticed her with her frisby that she loves playing with. Wish I started all this in the spring.

[Toto'smom]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I really appreciate it. The pool idea sounds like a great one!

Kayharley where did you find the tunnel & rails for your playground? I would love to have something like that for Toto. Don't know how well it would go with our other dog Bear. She's a Rottie. She has to have whatever Toto has & do whatever he does. Wouldn't that be entertaining seeing them both trying to go through the tunnel!

Belinda

[wheezie23]

I tried the swimming pool idea with Zoe and it was great.......until our cat discovered it and thought it was a giant litter box for him! Then it became this wonderful giant "treat" box for Zoe. Yuk!! I had to get rid of it. I'd try getting one of those Little Tykes turtle sandboxes that come with a cover if you have cats in the area.

Thela

[kayharley]

Toto'smom,

Check out Ebay. They have alot of different agility equipment, all different prices/quality. That tunnel is large enough for me to crawl through although it was quite warm when you get to the middle.