Flying Poodles

Poodles and Tunnels

It’s hard for a tall straight dog like a poodle to learn to do tunnels well.

When I started doing NADAC with Elly, she thought the Tunnelers class was really annoying. I remember the first time we did Tunnelers. She did five tunnels beautifully, then straightened up, shook her head to fluff her topknot, and trotted right over to her leash–with her best poodle strut going–all the while glaring at the judge. The judge commented afterwards that she’d never before had a dog flip her the bird.

The first time Elly did an entire Tunnelers course–with a few off-course tunnels thrown in for extra value–I had a huge party with her. Lots of rewards. No matter than we were many seconds over time.

Two weeks ago she got her first ever Tunnelers Q at the Mega-Dogs trial.

In between, and with Dancer, I trained tunnel skills. Most people start out with the tunnel and never feel the need to train tunnel speed. Their dogs think tunnels are really cool, and do them really fast. I had to plan out how to train tunnel love.

(Photo by Todd Coon, Infinite Exposures)

How do I teach ‘tunnel love’? I play the come game, back and forth through the tunnel, with high value treats. I could see her getting better and better at doing tunnels as we do more and more high-reward activities around the tunnels. I click and treat for fast tunnels. I run away as she came out of the tunnel, inciting her to play ‘chase me’.