Working on Tunnel Skills in Six Easy Steps the Team Small Dog Way.

My friends Wendy and Laura came over to Forest Agility to help me practice yesterday. We thought it would be a good idea to brush up on some skills and also help Wendy's dog Zuma learn how to do the closed tunnel.


Tunnels are serious stuff. Do not laugh at the tunnel. Dogs who do not have a good understanding of how to run through the closed tunnel with their heads low and straight can get caught up in the fabric and tangle up, stuck thrashing around like a horrible, wiggly, synthetic, horizontal ghost. Spookiness reigns forever. And regular old tunnels, left to their own devices, can just result in the big headache of off course due to the cosmic ying yang of left side and right side, westside and eastside and right side and wrong side.


Treat your tunnels with the same respect you would treat any other piece of dog agility equipment, and practice them diligently. Consistently. Do no take tunnel performance for granted. You don't want dogs just barreling into tunnels whenever they want. Because the next thing you know, they could be barreling into something like, well, heck, REAL BARRELS. And what if they were full of wine?


And then you've taught your dog to barrel into giant, french oak barrels that are full of red wine and it stains. Everything. And those oak barrels? Expensive. You break 'em, you bought 'em. Ever think about that? Thanks, dog agility.


Making you think twice about your tunnels now kittens, eh? Perhaps you were taking them for granted. But really. How well do you know your tunnels? Have you even spent any time in there yourself? What does it really mean to tunnel suck? Dare we even get started on what Freudian analysis tells us about tunnels? When you say your dog is obsessed with tunnels, what do you REALLY mean?


Good luck with your tunnel practicing. I guess you can see how ours went.