Tunnels and Chutes and Cones Oh My!

Just got back from Gracie's first tunnels and flatwork class.  It's another good group of dogs, two of which are also in our jumping class.  Let's see: 2 Border Collies, 2 Blue Heeler mixes (Gracie and another dog), a Beagle mix, a 3 month old Burnese Mountain Dog (so cute!), and a lab mix.  The first thing we learned about was the target.  It's very handy to be able to put a target (a butter tub lid works great) at the end of an obstacle and send the dog over/through the obstacle to the target.  It sounds like we'll be using the target for chute work mostly.  It will encourage the dogs to go straight through the chute to the target instead of turning towards the handler and potentially getting tangled up.  I've already introduced the target to Gracie at home, so she caught on to it in no time at class.  You want a tab on the back of the target for you to hold on to so that your fingers are never part of the target behavior.  Store the target with treats or food or rub something tasty over the front so the dog's nose is drawn to it.  Hold the target sort of nose level with the dog then when they go to investigate and their nose touches the front of the target click and treat, giving the treat at the target since dogs go where they are rewarded.  If they don't seem interested in the target you can reward for looking at the target which will hopefully get them more interested in it.  Once they get the idea you can start moving the target around; knee level, ankle level, left side, right side until they are nose touching fiends!  Don't go higher than where you started because once they are targeting like pros the target will be placed on the ground and you'll have to be able to send your dog to it.

Alright, enough on targeting.  Next we introduced a very short, maybe 1-2 ft. long, tunnel.  I only had to lure Gracie through a couple times before she was offering to run back and forth through the tunnel.  I couldn't toss treats fast enough!  The chute barrel was a little more difficult.  It's longer and has a cloth hanging over one end.  Same idea though, lure through (one direction only) until the dog goes through on her own, then lower the cloth and repeat. 

The other two exercises weren't obstacle specific.  We worked on proprioception (being aware of where all those feet are) by walking the dogs back and forth through a bunch of pool noodles.  The noodles were different sizes and spaced randomly so the dogs had to figure out how to place their feet to get over all of them. 

The last thing we did was introduce "out."  Out is used to send your dog away from you laterally, off to your side.  To start we walk in a straight line towards a cone (I use a plunger at home) in such a way that the dog has to go around it.  You click when the dog is on the opposite side of the cone from you then say "here" and treat when then dog is back at your side.  Eventually you can be several feet from the cone and be able to send your dog around the cone as you walk past it.  Gracie is really good at this at home, but everything is different at class, plus all the puppies from the next class were walking in so she was a little distracted but still did fairly well.

I love how quickly Gracie learns things.  This class will be a lot of fun!  Happy agility!