Has anyone ever done this with their dog?

I found this video the other day and looks like this dog is pretty neutral to the whole process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jFPNpyZWIE

Anybody ever known dogs to be afraid of heights and how would you go about testing for that? Any training ideas? And what kind of harness would you use? I sure like the one in Tammy’s MWD Skydiving video. Where would one go about getting one of those?

There are dogs that are afraid of heights. We see them in agility. When we start to raise the height of the dog walk they will run up the ramp then stop and start shaking and seem to be "frozen" I have not had one yet that we could not "fix" I would say 1 in 30 dogs does this. In my advanced obedience classes when we start going up evaluators and in parking structures I see some dogs that are bothered by the height and do not want to walk near the edge and will slam into their owner to try to stay away from it. Again they all get over it. Baby steps and marker training.

Great information Ericka.

I never thought about translating their agility work into the height thing. Both seem to have no problems with any of the equipment. My home A-Frame is pretty steep and a good 5 feet high. We've also done quite a bit of actual bridge work with streams rushing below.

Based on this kind of observation (thanks for pointing that out) they're probably fine for not having any kind of height phobia thing.

I was thinking about maybe grabbing a towel that will fit the length of their under belly to groin area and have Bob and I on either side to lift them up a few times. Once they’re comfortable with this, then maybe walk a couple of steps with them - just to get them used to that kind of lifting pressure.

The height issue in agility is alway interesting for me to see too. Their behavior is totally different than the dog that respond by jumping off or can't find their entry. I am really confident that it is the height. The behavior is easier to see on the dog walk. I am bothered by heights as a person. It is not being up heigh that bothers me it is the thought of falling. The dogs that are bothered seem to have the same issue, they would never jump off! They shake and try to grab the wood with their craws ect.. I would say if your dog jumps on and off the equipment you are probably fine.

The lifting drills sound good with the towel. I think the harness would be more comfortable so if the dog is ok with a towel it should be fine with the harness. There is another post on here with the guy with no legs skydiving with his Mal. What I really like about that video is when they hit the ground someone throws a ball for the dog. The dog is instantly in play mode and he gets it tossed a couple of times. While the boxer in this video looks like he tolerated the ride I am not sure how he liked his reward of patting and petting. I would say keep the reward high value.

Happy Training.