Agility Equipment

[Toffee's Mom]

the tunnel

that's so cute, whereas most dogs think it's a magnet that is irresistible!!!
T is a cautious dog, so he wasn't fond of the tunnel in the beginning either, but nothing a good tugging session coming out of the tunnel didn't fix, lol

 

[Calliesmom]

for Cran- dogwalk/teeter. he's not intimidated by anything so he has no problems with jumping off those obstacles. his teeter is much better now but his dogwalk- if I am running and it's on my right- 8 out of 10 times, he'll jump off. if we are running the other way and the dogwalk is on my left, he'll run all the way down. no idea how to fix this.

everything was scary for Dixie except jumps and the table. so she watched Cran and then I let her follow him- worked on everything- guess that's why she has 2 std Q and 1 jww Q and Cran has none......

 

[Justicemom]

that's so cute, whereas most dogs think it's a magnet that is irresistible!!!
T is a cautious dog, so he wasn't fond of the tunnel in the beginning either, but nothing a good tugging session coming out of the tunnel didn't fix, lol

Um I was just remembering Ember didn't like tunnels at first or the chute(it touched her you know). Thinking back at how much Ember had issues with it was amazing. Jumping she never had an issue with jumping.

 

[Sealtainn]

The tunnel has an added challenge to it in that the dog loses sight of the handler for some period of time after which the dog has not retained sufficient cues as to which direction to turn to at exit, or if to turn at all or to blast out in extension.
Less of an issue with typical AKC courses, somewhat of an issue with some USDAA courses & more frequently an issue on international courses.
The challenge is actually for the handler to properly cue both the tunnel & give cues as to where to go on exit before entering.
Even many dogs who are tunnel suckers will have such trouble if the handler hasn't worked with the dog sufficiently in training to successfully maneuver courses with non-obvious changes in direction, especially those that require lead changes against the curvature.

With other obstacles the dog still has the handler in sight to assist during the execution of the obstacle if necessary.

 

[corbinam]

The tunnel has an added challenge to it in that the dog loses sight of the handler for some period of time after which the dog has not retained sufficient cues as to which direction to turn to at exit, or if to turn at all or to blast out in extension.
Less of an issue with typical AKC courses, somewhat of an issue with some USDAA courses & more frequently an issue on international courses.
The challenge is actually for the handler to properly cue both the tunnel & give cues as to where to go on exit before entering.
Even many dogs who are tunnel suckers will have such trouble if the handler hasn't worked with the dog sufficiently in training to successfully maneuver courses with non-obvious changes in direction, especially those that require lead changes against the curvature.

With other obstacles the dog still has the handler in sight to assist during the execution of the obstacle if necessary.

I think this applies more to the handling aspect rather than obstacle performance. Yes, this and the chute are the only blind obstacles on the course thus making handling correctly to cue the dog much more difficult.

However, the performance of the obstacle itself is not that difficult to teach.

Weaves are the only obstacles that are not something that the dog would do naturally (vs. jump or go through or over).

 

[pattymaine]

Teeter, definitely. Both Bailey and Lucy balk at it and it takes forever to get them to come down the other side. I finally decided to order a teeter from a local vendor and I'm hoping with lots of practice they'll be used to it by spring trials!!!

 

[corbinam]

Teeter, definitely. Both Bailey and Lucy balk at it and it takes forever to get them to come down the other side. I finally decided to order a teeter from a local vendor and I'm hoping with lots of practice they'll be used to it by spring trials!!!

Not to get too off-topic, but have you looked into the Wendy Pape method? It breaks the teeter up into different performances and really helps the dog know to run to the end to ride it down.

 

[pattymaine]

Thanks for the tip, Ashley! I hadn't heard of the Wendy Pape method but when I googled it I found some youtube videos (including some of you and Jonathan training Lexi!) and I discovered she has a training dvd out, too. I'm excited to try these techniques once we get our teeter (it's on order and we'll probably get it by the end of October...). Thanks again!!!

 

[Toffee's Mom]

Thanks for the tip, Ashley! I hadn't heard of the Wendy Pape method but when I googled it I found some youtube videos (including some of you and Jonathan training Lexi!) and I discovered she has a training dvd out, too. I'm excited to try these techniques once we get our teeter (it's on order and we'll probably get it by the end of October...). Thanks again!!!

I think great idea to get the equipment, I was so worried about the teeter, because Toffee is a careful kind of dog! Breaking it down was super important and proper 2o2o behaviour first before putting the dog on the equipment. This way the dog is really eager to get to the reward zone, I found.
and as my instructor says fly-offs happen... don't make too big of a fuss and just go on (we had a little fly off at last trial, cuz teeter goes down faster than the one we use) I just verbally praised him, and continued.. the next day, same teeter, different course, he didn't think twice, took the teeter but slower, cuz he remembered from day before and adjusted how he took it.

 

[Calliesmom]

for Cran- dogwalk/teeter. he's not intimidated by anything so he has no problems with jumping off those obstacles. his teeter is much better now but his dogwalk- if I am running and it's on my right- 8 out of 10 times, he'll jump off. if we are running the other way and the dogwalk is on my left, he'll run all the way down. no idea how to fix this.

everything was scary for Dixie except jumps and the table. so she watched Cran and then I let her follow him- worked on everything- guess that's why she has 2 std Q and 1 jww Q and Cran has none......

shouldn't have said anything about the boy- now he's launching off the teeter too. have to do the teeter several times before he'll wait until it hits the ground....... silly boy