Ok, so you’ve decided you want to do some agility training with your dog. That’s great! You’ve seen a few competitions, you know you need dog agility gear, and you decide to go to the pet store for some of the standard training items, like a tunnel. When you get there, what you find is that there are many options to choose from, but you really have no idea which one would suit you and Fido best. No good.
Well, luckily, here is some information that may help. This is the information you need to know how to select an agility tunnel.
Tunnels come in several different types. The basic competition selection comes in 10-foot, 12-foot, 15-foot, and 20-foot lengths. They can have a 4-inch pitch or a 6-inch pitch. The pitch refers to the amount of space between the metal that structures the interior of the tunnel. It can be heat sealed or sewn. Sewn is best for a warm climate like Az. Industrial tear resistant fabric is highly durable. The sun can cause a heat seal to fall apart after a while.
Various Agility venues have different requirements for the course. AKC and USDAA, for example, require a 4-inch step. The pitch gives a tunnel durability, stability and weight. The heavier weight may be required when hundreds of dogs are running through one, but for your own home training needs to practice, a 6-inch step will generally work just fine. It really depends on your level of competition and your trainer’s wishes for you and your dog.
All sizes of tunnels are used in an agility course. You need longer ones to tunnel into a U or L shape. You can also fold them under other pieces of contact gear like an A-frame or dog walker to teach him to discriminate between two obstacles. Most dogs find the tunnels really tempting, so it’s kind of a distraction.
There are also collapsed tunnels or they are also known as slides. These are attached to a barrel and clamped together to form a flat or collapsed tunnel which is generally more challenging for the dog and also takes longer to traverse. You should never leave a hopper unattended in your backyard as a dog can become entangled in one and there can be dire results of injury or worse. It should only be used with the supervision of the handler. Most dogs like these with practice.
If a person is in a puppy class or has a young dog and wants to do some fun training in the backyard, a practice tunnel made of lightweight nylon-type material is available for this type of activity. It is less expensive and easy to transport or store.
To stabilize your tunnel, it should ideally have tunnel weights or strap-like fasteners on both ends and possibly in the middle to keep it from shifting or tilting when a fast dog runs through it. Milk jugs filled with sand and a rope or cord can have the same effect if you don’t want to immediately buy tunnel bags, but that’s what they’re designed for: to keep the tunnel stable.
The tunnels can be of a multitude of colors. You can mix and match and have fun making your course colorful.
Now a trip to the pet store to buy dog agility training equipment won’t be so overwhelming since you know how to select an agility tunnel.