With so much chatter about how to use a place board in working dog training, I thought I would show you how we made ours!
What You Will Need To Build Your Place Board:
- An 8ft length of 3inch x 2 inch timber. We asked the local merchant to cut the lengths to the sizes we needed.
- A ply top for the place board which we again had cut for us 24 inch long by 15 inch wide.
- A piece of astroturf (or other artificial turf) 26 inches long by 18 inches wide slightly larger than the top so we could wrap sides.
- 8 screws of 4.5 inch length
- 10 screws of 2.5 inch length
- Staple gun or glue
Assembly Of Your Place Board
Assembly was really quick and simple. Lay the wood frame out with long lengths on the outside of the shorter lengths. The board will sit at 3 inches high.
Screw the four pieces together to create a frame. When you purchase 3 x 2 inch timber, it is never actually that exact size width. Ours was actually 1.75 inches hence the 11.5 inches shorter lengths butting up to the 2 sides to make a total 15 inches depth (this will make more sense when you make it)
Once you have created your place board frame, add the ply top to the frame. Use four screws along each of the long sides and 2 in the middle of the shorter lengths.
Glue or staple the astroturf securely to the top. We used a mixture of both to ensure the dogs couldn’t get hurt by the turf slipping.
And it’s as easy as that! Each one we made looked more professional as we tweaked the design. Don’t forget to head over to our MASTERCLASS SECTION to watch our brilliant video on effectively using your place board.
Make sure to send us your pics of your place boards, and we will add them to this post!
SUBSCRIBE FOR YOUR FREE PDF PLACEBOARD INSTRUCTIONS
We have made a FREE Place Board Instruction Street. Instant access here, plus we will send you a copy via email for safekeeping.
Lead Magnet Placeboard Form
Design Updates:
Some of our followers have sent us some great ideas to improve on our design.
Peter sent us these via email along with pics with his DIY place boards and we HAD to share.
Placeboard Design Update
- I have attached some photographs to illustrate the main features.
- Firstly I decided that since the boards will only be supporting the weight of a dog, the construction could in fact be much lighter.
- I opted for the main frame to be made from 47mm x 22mm rough sawn treated timber, instead of the (nominally) 3 x 2. which is suggested.
- This represents a weight reduction in the order 70%, so is much lighter to carry.
- Another advantage is that much smaller screws can be used for assembly of the frame, for which I used 4 x 50 mm, together with 3.5 x 30 mm for fixing the top board.
- Both of these features of course also reflect cost savings.
- You will also see that I have added a rope handle to the boards for ease of carrying. This is 10 mm diameter, threaded through a 12 mm diameter hole and stapled to the inside of the frame.
I trust you will find these comments useful and they come with my best wishes to you and the team.
Best regards,
Peter
The LWDG is all about collaboration and community and his ideas are absolutely fabulous! Thanks Peter 🙂
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