Bar Bells
01 Jul 2006
At Dana Pike’s 2006 Spring Maintenance Camp Rhonda Carter mentioned temporarily attaching small bells to each end of a jump bar. If the dog ticks or drops the bar the bells jingle to alert you (and the dog) to the dropped bar. These “Bar Bells” are great if you train by yourself so you can know as soon as a bar is dropped. Similarly, the dog will know if they dropped a bar, the bell sound becomes an instant No Reward Marker. I thought this was a great and easy to implement idea.
You can get some small bells at a craft store tie them to some Velcro, elastic, string or an elastic hair tie and tie a loop in the other end. Then put the jump bar through the loop when you put the bar on the jump standards. Put one bell on each end of the bar so they are hanging freely.
The only caveat would be to choose bells that can’t catch a long coated dog’s fur and/or have the bells hang low enough so they are out of the way. For our BCs this type of bell would be fine. In this picture I’ve also rotated them slightly so you can see them better.
If you enjoyed this article won't you please: 
Thanks!