Tunnel Training For Terriers

Terriers are feisty little dogs traditionally used for hunting vermin and also for tracking and hunting down small quarries. Though they are very popular as pets because of their intelligence and fierce loyalty, they still have a lot of the hunting instinct in them. If you would like to train your terrier and give it a taste of hunting down a quarry, you could consider using tunnel training.

Tunnel training usually involves training a terrier to track and hunt down its quarry (which are typically rats or squirrels) through underground tunnels that are man made. It is trained to follow the scent of its quarry and then use various means to reach it. Since the whole encounter takes place in a controlled atmosphere, neither the terrier nor the quarry is ever in any real danger, yet it provides the terrier with a good opportunity to test its hunting skills.

Here are a few tips on how you can provide your terrier with tunnel training.
1.    Different terriers develop their hunting skills at different ages. Some do so at the young ages of 9 months while for others, you may need to wait for beyond one year before you can consider tunnel training them. However, in the meantime, you can start basic obedience training so that the dog knows to obey simple instructions like come, sit, down, heel and stay. It will help you to get to know your terrier better and understand what makes it respond positively.
2.    Once you feel that your terrier is mature enough to receive some high-level training, you can have a small tunnel constructed to start the training with. Build a wooden tunnel about 6 feet in length so that it can fit inside a garage or even the basement. This is particularly true if you do not have a large house or yard to put the tunnel in.
To start training your dog to hunt in this tunnel, most experts suggest that you do not feed the dog for one day. Then the next day, when the dog is really hungry, place the tunnel on your driveway and throw down a piece of kibble a little distance into the tunnel. Your little terrier will run inside, pick it up and come back for more. Keep throwing the kibble deeper and deeper inside till your terrier manages to go all the way through. Slowly increase the length of the tunnel till it is running through a full-length tunnel in no time.
3.    You can now introduce a quarry at the end of the tunnel and train your terrier to go for it from the other end of the tunnel. Again, before you start training, you may want to keep food away from your pet for about a day. The next day, show the quarry  (kept safely in a highly secure critter box) to the terrier and place it at one end of the tunnel. Hunger is a good motivator and you will soon find your terrier racing through the tunnel at your signal.
Of course, initially, your terrier may be a little confused as to what it should do once it reaches the quarry but eventually its instincts will take over and it will start barking, scratching, and trying generally to reach the quarry.