Working Those Weaves

Over the past few weeks I have been working to proof the kelpies' weaves a bit more - especially Atilla's. Although his weave pole performance is usually pretty reliable, he occasionally pops out at a trial when we happen to get a set that are particularly 'bendy' - he's not very tolerant at being hit in the face by them. When this happens, he tends to weave slower to try and avoid touching them and this appears to throw his footwork 'off.' Due to the lack of bend in his wrist, his weave footwork is quite bizarre since returning to agility - especially when compared to before - and he doesn't cope well with any disruption to his rhythm.

So the first thing I did was to set up a really bodgy set of weave poles. I used a mixture of jump bars (these were too big so they rattled around on the holders) and electrical conduit (very bendy and great face slapping material). Then I put them in the roughest area of the yard, away from the usual training area and moved them really close to the cyclone fencing of the dog run so that he was almost weaving into a barrier.



There's actually grass in this area now, but when I first set this up, he was pretty much weaving on dirt. I started off using really high value rewards, both toy and food, and jackpotted him several times for staying in when the poles hit him in the face. Then I worked on running alongside for the first half of the poles and then gradually slowing down as he approached the end. This one was interesting - I had proofed running along the poles and stopping at various points before he completed them beforehand and he managed this really well - but when I ran alongside and slowed down toward the end, he actually popped out the first couple of times. So although I proofed stopping, I had assumed that slowing down was the same and had never really proofed this before. So Cruz also got the benefit of this lesson.

Then I brought out the big guns of distraction - a few bones scattered around the poles as they weaved (although I questioned this wisdom after almost twisting my ankle on one!) building up to the two old dogs actually chewing on the bones beside the weave poles as they weaved.


The 'distraction crew' thought this was the best agility training they had ever been involved in.

And I'm also pleased to report that both the kelpies passed this one with flying colours.

I've also been taking some 'stick in the ground' poles down to the local oval every now and again and sending them through these in between our circle running and kong throwing.
Overall I am pretty happy with their weave pole work - although Cruz's entries, trained with 2X2's, would leave Atilla's for dead. I am so impressed with these, and can't wait to actually teach a dog 'from scratch' using this method.

I found this exercise scrawled in one of my notebooks - no idea where I got it from though - and have been working this over the past week.


I really enjoyed running this as there were a lot of different combinations - we mainly focused on working the 'figure 8' using the weaves and the jump but mixing it up by including the tunnel every now and then. Neither kelpie had any problems with making the right hand weave entry (pictured on the left) but the left hand entry was a real problem for Atilla if I didn't babysit it. Cruz was amazing - he actually straightened himself up by going past the first pole and turning himself around (which we trained in the 2X2 sessions) but Atilla kept continuing on the angle after slicing the centre jump, made the entry every time, but could not bend around enough to get the second pole when he hit the entry at speed. He has a very limited understanding of collecting and bending around the poles compared to Cruz - which is totally my fault (at least on his 'good side') as I never taught him to do it. He still does the 'see poles run fast' from the channel method.

There have been some interesting weave pole challenges in a few of the Masters courses lately. This one was actually set by two very different judges - the rest of their courses were totally different but the weave entry was exactly the same.
On both courses the challenge was coming from the lower jump with a tight left hand entry to the weaves - and an off course jump staring you in the face. Atilla missed the first time and took the off course jump. This was a fast and flowing course for the most part and he got too far ahead of me before the weaves so I wasn't there to handle it. On the second course he had no trouble with it - but this was a tighter course with a lot of turns and I managed to be slightly in front of him before the jump so it was much easier to direct him this time.

The other interesting challenge - which I couldn't believe how many had trouble with it - was on an Excellent Gamblers course that we qualified on.

The weaves were at the beginning of the gamble, but because of the way the line was set up, your dog actually had to weave away from you. (Imagine the distance line going straight up for the rest of the gamble - couldn't figure out how to draw it . This is also showing the first 2 obstacles only in the gamble - the last two were a single bar jump and the broad jump, slightly offset after the tunnel ) I found it really surprising that most of the dogs running were Masters dogs but very few completed the weaves.

Hopefully our proofing sessions - which we will continue with - will help both kelpies understand their job and stop me stressing every time I see a set of bendy poles. The thing that's impressed me the most with Atilla's weaves lately is his improved confidence. Last week at training he went through the weaves so fast that he actually hit a pole really hard and pulled it out of the holder. This would have freaked him a couple of months back but it didn't bother him in the slightest - plus he got the mother of all jackpots for staying in. Weave on !