Target Stick

Hi There

I need to make myself a target stick to help me with Rally-O training my two rather short dogs. Aside from just getting a dowel, does anyone have any other 'cool' ideas? A target stick is something like what whale trainers use to make the whales jump out of the water, you know, the really long thing the trainer holds out and the whales touch with the chins/noses? The reason I need it is because I can't otherwise stand up straing while rewarding the 'perfect behaviour' of a heel.

I use a dowel, but I'd love to get one of those retractable dealies.

They're basically pointers, but with a bigger knob on the end.

http://www.dog-toy.co.uk/dogproducts/product_images/targetstick.jpg

The dowel cost me $0.85 and works just fine. Unfortunately, it's not very portable.

I had considered checking the trash around the neighbourhood for a tent, you know the newer tents with the poles that fold up and are linked with elastic? I figured I could use three of the pieces and rig the elastic somehow.

I wonder if an antenna from a really old radio or TV would work (I say old because it seems to me they used to be longer when I was a kid... but then, maybe I was just smaller!)

Good to know the dowel works though! Isn't that a face of a golden though? Why would you need a target stick?

Mine's a child's plastic baton.. The streamers are long gone. Now it's just a tube with end caps that is all shiny ;) Long enough to do the job, short enough to throw in to my agility bag with the top open and take it places..

Old radio antenna, old telescopic fishing pole, even half of a standard fiberglass fishing pole, try garage sales

Just a thought... tomato stick (thin bamboo pole) cut in three with bungee cord running through it and knotted at the top end (knot covered with a decorative wood knob from crat store).