Last night at the end of our Obedience training class, our instructor, Dena, brought out some elementary agility equipment for the dogs to try. She lined the length of the room with a foam “ladder,” a “wobbler,” a platform or “pause table,” and a tunnel.  It was amazing how much the dogs distrusted the equipment, and this was nowhere near competition-level stuff.

The ladder was just some foam floatation “noodles” like kids use in swimming pools. The bigger Labs and the Great Dane were balky and hesitant about putting their feet inside the “rungs.”

The “wobbler” was basically a board balanced on a ball, kind of an elementary teeter-totter. This was highly suspicious to many of the dogs.  One owner left a trail of kibble across it, but his little dog still wouldn’t get aboard.

The pause table was a flat platform not even two inches off the ground. You’d think that dogs would have nothing to fear here, but this innocent piece of raised flooring was also met with suspicion.

The tunnel was the scariest obstacle, although most dogs were able to be coaxed through it. The Great Dane absolutely refused. I longed for my camera–the dog’s rear was sticking out of one end of the tunnel and the owner’s was on the other end! It looked like something from America’s Funniest Videos. Eventually, she sat down in front of the tunnel and would go no further.

And what of Fearless Fannie? She trotted through the ladder, across the wobbler, sat nicely on the pause table and ran right through the tunnel as if to say, “What’s the big deal?”