Has anyone ever built an A-frame?

We built one last summer, and are building another this summer. Are you making it to the standard specs for trials, or just want a general A-frame?

 Regulation Aframes are 9 foot boards on each side of the A and a minimum of 3 feet wide.  You can use 1/2" plywood with 2" x 2" boards along the sides and a few acrossed the middle on the backsides.  This will be a monster to move around however.  Plus, don't use treated lumber for a lighter Aframe, but you will have to seal it with a good quality oil based paint to keep it from rotting.  I've had 2" x 12" x 12' boards rot in a year of being outside without proper treatment.

Mark's Agility equipment sells Aframes for about $600 or so (haven't checked lately). They have aluminum frames and a thin sheet of aluminum over the frame so there is no issues with rot, etc.

You could also make a smaller one, buy one piece of 8' plywood and cut it in half.  Then use the boards on the bottom as you would for a larger one.  Be sure to paint any wood with a sealer type of paint if it will be outside all the time.

You can also purchase something called a contact trainer for around $300 from various places.  These are a combo of Aframe and dogwalk so you can practice contact behaviors on both 3' wide and 12" wide planks. HTH!

 You might to rethink your size on the AF. The problem is that the dogs start to understand the obstacle and KNOW how many strides that it takes to finish it. If you have a shorter AF, your dog(s) will stop short of the end or start to creep to the end of a regulation 9' AF.

I went though this with my dogs as I built an 8' AF. 

 If you don't care about competing, it doesn't matter. If you DO wish to compete at some point, look at the org you're going to compete in, and make it to regs. It'll pay off, in the end:) TDAA may have smaller a frames, but I *think* all dogs run the same in AKC. The jumps just change.

 The only venue with smaller aframes is TDAA.  All others have 9' aframes regardless of size of dog.  The height of the apex does change though.