Gearing Up: How to Put a Sleeve Cover on a Hard Sleeve

Ray Allen Manufacturing’s sleeve covers are built with the highest quality to help maintain your hard sleeve and enhance your K9’s training. While sleeve covers are a necessity in bite training, securely fastening it to a hard sleeve for the first time can be tricky. Fortunately, Ray Allen Manufacturing is here to help.

What to Look for Before You Begin

To attach your sleeve cover to the hard sleeve, you’ll need three things:

1. Sleeve cover, like our Layered Jute or Syntek Cuff sleeves.
2. Hard sleeve, like our Trial Sleeve and Trial Light Sleeve.
3. Included belt

After following this setup guide, you should notice a few key things to keep in mind. Be sure to take note of the locations of the belt loops, both inside the top of the sleeve cover and outside the top of the hard sleeve. You’ll also notice a large slit opening on the cover. This is to allow full arm motion for the decoy or trainer.

Keep in mind that once the sleeve cover is on and secure, you should be able to see the belt buckle at the top of the sleeve cover opening, positioned right where the hard cover layers overlap on each other. You’ll also notice a spiral pattern stitched into the outside of the sleeve cover. Think of this as a target for the K9. Once completely set up, this spiral should be directly over the hard sleeve’s bite bar.

Applying the Sleeve Cover

The first thing you’re going to want to do is take the included belt off of the hard sleeve. After that, it’s recommended that you put the hard sleeve on to make the rest of the process easier. Next, you’ll want to put the sleeve cover on, slit opening first. Pull the sleeve cover all the way up until the belt loops on both the sleeve and cover line up. The cuffs of both the cover and hard sleeve should meet equally.

This is a good time to check the positioning of the sleeve cover. Remember, you want the slit opening directly over where the crook of your arm is, with the stitched spiral directly over the hard sleeve’s bite bar.

Securing the Sleeve Cover to the Hard Sleeve

If you’ve never put a sleeve cover on before, this is where things can get a little tricky.

• First, slide the belt all the way through the first loop (where sleeve matches up and overlaps) on the hard sleeve, all the way to the buckle.
• Next, slide the belt through the first two belt loops on the sleeve cover. Now pull the belt tightly so that the first three belt loops are drawn closely together.
• Now you can continue threading the belt back and forth through each loop, first with the second hard sleeve loop, then to the next cover sleeve loop and so on until the belt is through all loops.
• Keep in mind that if done properly, the last belt loop you’ll be passing through before buckling should be the last loop on the sleeve cover.
• Tightly buckle the belt. You’re now ready to train!

Have questions about setting up your hard sleeve or sleeve cover? Contact us, and we would be happy to help out!

Ray Allen Manufacturing is an industry leader in equipment for dog training and handling. From Schutzhund sport training to K9 bite work for police and military application, we can help you enhance your dog’s skills with our high-quality products!