Sunday, September 5, 2010

Tanner Tunnels

Tanner has being doing tunnels since he was a pup. Regulation agility tunnels can be between 22-26 inches tall. Tanner is 32 inches tall. However, just like in the dog door post, Tanner doesn't seem concerned about the size difference.



You can see that I throw a toy for Tanner to keep him driving straight through the tunnel. If I had an adult dog Tanner's size that I wanted to teach this behavior to, I would start with a hula hoop. I would want to dog to be comfortable to scrunching down to get through the hoop before I moved on.

The next step would be to have them go through a tunnel that is completely scrunched up and more like a thick hula hoop than a tunnel. I would gradually lengthen the tunnel while keeping a high rate of reinforcement up for the dog. Keeping training sessions short so that the dog is never tired of the activity is also important!

6 comments:

Greyhounds CAN Sit said...

Awesome video. Tanner has got going through a tunnel down to a fine art:-)

Muttsandaklutz said...

Interesting video, the slow-motion is really neat to watch, and Tanner looks to be enjoying it. Amazing what athletes dogs are!

whygreyhounds said...

Tanner looks like the tunnel is a piece of cake for him! I used a similar technique with Rex as he too is taller than the tunnel height.

houndstooth said...

Tanner's quite an athlete! He looks great doing the tunnel!

Sandy ~~~ said...

Ah-ha! I can find a hulla hoop. That is a great way to start the training with a TALL dog, before I would invest in our own tunnel. Thanks Tanner!

Never Say Never Greyhounds said...

WOW! 32 inches tall! He looks great! Hope to see you guys in the obedience and/or agility rings in the future!