Affordable Agility (affordableagility.com) has tunnels, barrels, and chutes. Their competition-quality items are the cheapest I have found on the internet. They also have “practice” versions, which are not as sturdy.  I believe they sell the chutes and the barrels as separate items, so be sure you are ordering all the pieces that you need. Practice tunnel ($55-160), Competition tunnel ($150-$245), Practice chute/barrel combo ($95), Competition chute only (+/-$100), Competition “budget” barrel only ($45).

Clean Run: (these are “practice” quality) Pac-n-Go Tunnel ($90), Pac-n-Go Chute ($85), Pac-n-Go set ($230). If you have the book from Clean Run about building agility stuff, they have instructions in there for sewing your own chute–then you’d only have to buy or build a barrel.

I ordered the Pac-n-Go set from Clean Run (cleanrun.com) that included two tunnels and a chute/barrel combination. The price was decent, and the quality is good. I am very happy with those.  I never leave these “practice” items outside when I am not using them.

For training the tunnel, one person holds the leash and the other one goes to the other end of the tunnel and demonstrates they have food, toys, or a game waiting. Very simple. With the chute, you will want to fold the chute part back on itself until you have only a little bit hanging down for the dog to go through. Then you extend this a little bit every time. If you have help, you can have the dog go through the entire thing, but have someone hold it open at the end.  Then after they have the hang of it, you can let them drop the end as the dog is about a foot from the end. Then you can do it as they are 2 feet from the end, etc.

These things are quite hilarious to try to teach if you are all alone, as I am. Roger is the builder in the family and definitely NOT a dog trainer. For the tunnel, it was very easy. I threw a ball or a squeaky toy through to the other side and presto! Doggie goes through. For Kipp, I got him to go through one time and now he is a tunnel freak. If there is a tunnel in the yard, Kipp goes through it over and over and over.

For the chute, if you are all alone, you need a very cooperative dog if you do not want to roll the thing up and do it gradually. I stood at the collapsed end and sent Kipp to the barrel part and then called him to me. Kipp turned himself into a sausage encased in chute the first time, but he did manage to come out the right end. Kipp is not so good at continuing in the same direction if he cannot see, kind of like me when I am swimming with my eyes closed. After doing this a couple times, it dawned on me that since I could send him around to the barrel part, I could hold up the chute part for him to see his way through a couple times and then drop it when he got near the end. That worked perfectly. If I am running beside him, I just call “Chute! Chute! Chute!” as he is going through so he can follow my voice and not get turned around. With more practice he probably won’t need the help. If he does still need the help, who cares? We just do this in the backyard… If you are taking class, probably they have a better way.

For Tess and the chute, I had already practiced with Kipp so she got the benefit of being sent to the barrel and being able to see her way through once, then I dropped the end a few times when she was almost out, and then I had her go through on her own and she did great. Now she is a master.

These obstacles, once learned, will probably turn out to be your dog’s favorites. There are no contacts and no possible way to do them wrong–they just go through and that’s it! Piece of cake!

You will want to take a few weeks to do close them down, practicing a bit each day. Start with six poles and then add two poles as your dog has mastered each set. Go from 6 to 8 to 10, etc.

If you find your dog stopping before the last pole to look back at you or to run to the next obstacle, try throwing a toy or a treat past the last pole on the side they should come out on–they will be focused on that and go all the way through.

If your dog makes a mistake or misses a pole, this just means you went a bit too fast. You can go back and make it easier by opening the weaves up a bit again, then try again to close them some.

We put on side rails so I can use it as an obstacle even after they pay more attention to where their back feet are. My dogs are more likely to leap over it than go through it without the rails, especially if I send them from a distance.

Here are tips from Tess & Kipp:

Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt
This book focuses more on the reactive dog and how to give them skills to cope with the agility environment. There’s a mailing list at Yahoo as well, and everyone there is friendly and helpful. From the description: “Leslie McDevitt’s versatile Control Unleashed program is designed to help “dogs with issues” learn how to relax, focus, and work off-leash reliably in either stimulating or stressful situations.”

101 Dog Tricks by Kyra Sundance and Chalcy
This book has some agility stuff in it, but it is full of fun tricks for your dog. If you are doing agility at home just for fun, you can really mix it up if you know more than just the agility things. I love this book. My dogs just adore learning new tricks and I’m convinced the tricks training helps them be more flexible and accepting of new agility stuff as it comes along.

Lower your tire or hoop all the way to the ground. You can’t do this with the hoop jumps described here, but you can make very short supports and have several heights so you can gradually work up to full height. Make it very easy at first.

Get your dog to walk through the hoop, and give your command as the dog goes through, then reward. This is a very good time to use a toy as a reward – you can throw it so your dog will go through the hoop after it. Raise the hoop or tire a little bit at a time, and soon your dog will be going through it at the regular height. Do not reward your dog if he goes under the hoop instead of through. Just say “oops!” and try again.