By Nancy Gyes Tunnel drills Vision I used this setup at a recent seminar with both Novice and Masters dogs and was able to number lots of simple (but not always easy) exercises. © DOGHOuse arTs 1 Last month I wrote about acceleration and deceleration. I think tunnels, and the paths to and from them, are a perfect place to practice those skills. If you can cue deceleration when your dog goes into a tunnel, you should be able to get a much better turn out of the tunnel toward the next obstacle. You can cue deceleration both verbally and physically. You want to try to make sure your handling supports what you want the dog to do when he exits the tunnel. If it is possible to stop your forward motion just as your dog enters the tunnel, effectively cueing deceleration, then you want to do so and reward your dog hundreds of times for turning back to you at the exit. If you are driving hard, you would normally want your dog to be in extension coming out of the tunnel and heading toward an obstacle. But sometimes you need a tight turn, and you need to run hard to meet your dog at the tunnel exit, so it's not possible to use a physical deceleration cue when he enters the tunnel. This is where a verbal cue can help you. Some of my students target tunnels with 38 Tunnel Vision their toy and teach a verbal cue like Tight. They pair the cue with targeting the tunnel many times so the dog will turn tightly on exit, even if the handlers have to show acceleration when the dog is entering the tunnel. Timely calling of your dog as he enters the tunnel or using a Right or Left verbal also can help you create tighter turns on the exit. In this month's drills I have pointed out places where you can show acceleration or deceleration on some of the jumping lines. I hope you enjoy "Tunnel Vision" drills as much as I did when I trained my dogs on them. D Clean Run | May 14