Weave Pole Training
Over the years a number of weave pole training methods have been introduced which produced various results in individual dogs. Whatever method is chosen always strive to work the poles with speed, to do otherwise is training the dog to understand that you like slow weave pole performances. When this happens the handler eventually asks, "How do I speed him up in the poles?"
A fast weave pole performance to aim for is 3 seconds on a set of 12 poles. If you have a set of weave-o-matics, channels, or a set with guide wires you'll be able to work on speed without having to worry about the dog making mistakes. If your dog has been working well in the poles don't worry about small mistakes, your focus is on speed training for that session. Once the dog gets going and understands that you would really like for him to work the poles with speed the accuracy will follow. Katie Greer
Wires on the
poles - every other pole is connected by a wire of sufficient gauge to hold its
shape. They are also made of PVC. They form an vertical arch as they join
together with the poles to form a "chute" in which the dog passes.
_ _ _ _
/ \ / \ / \ / \
*
o o o o o o o o o o
* \ _ / \_ / \ _/ \_ /
* represents the dog entering the poles with the first pole at its left
shoulder, and then exiting again up at the top right of the drawing. Hopefully,
you can visualize the "chute" that has been created by the wires for
the dog to pass through.
Typically the wires are set at about shoulder height of the dog. The dog is able
to work in the poles with little opportunity to make a mistake offering good
opportunity to work on those angled entries and speed!
As training
progresses the wires can be gradually removed from the weave poles. Leave the
entry wires on until last. If after taking one wire off the dog pops out, back
up and continue to work longer. To start off only have one wire removed at a
time. When the dog is working nicely with the one removed, put it back on and
remove a different one. Mix this up until you can work up to having 2 wires off,
and proceed on from there. In the end all of the wires save the entry wire will
have been removed. Katie Greer
The way I started Toby was a bit of a hotch potch of other ideas, but does seem to be working well. I wanted a dog that would do the weaves entirely dependant of me i.e on the right or left, or with me running across to the next obstacle. Toby is a rescue and when I got him at eleven months was very long and had very poor muscle development. Because of this I started him off by just getting him to chase a ball down a channel of poles, 6 poles on each side about a foot away from each other
o o o o o o
o o o o o
o
something like this. Once he was going down the channel, I then started throwing
the ball past the end when he entered until he would rush through and I didn't
have to throw the ball until he exited. This seemed to give him the idea of
forward movement. Once his muscle tone had improved I then went on to the
V method. I'm a great one for improvising so I just used 12 of the poles farmers
use for supporting electric fences ( not very expensive). You space them the
same distance apart as you would have
conventional weaves, with there tips in a straight line, but when you start have
the poles almost flat to the ground with alternate poles lying different ways. I
was going to try and draw a picture but can't. What you have is one pole lying
to the left and then one to the right, make sure you set them the right way to
get the entry correct. I started Toby on the lead until he had got the idea of
stepping down the tunnel. once he was doing
this as fast as he could I then went through the process with the ball again,
you may need to run beside them for a while but don't be tempted to start moving
your hands and go to both sides. Once he was doing them flat out with me on both
sides and forward or back of him, you then lift the poles a bit. You keep doing
this until the poles are upright and the dogs weaving. You can leave the first
and last poles at a flatter angle to assist
with the entry and exit if needs be. Worked really well for me and Toby steps
through the weaves instead of bouncing. Be careful not to rush it though. If my
description doesn't make sense E-mail me privately and I'll try to scan you in a
picture. Marie Poole
The Eight
Faces of Weave Poles by Jim Hutchins
Eight ways of teaching weave poles:
1. Back chaining weave poles. Start with two poles. Have the dog
"exit" between the poles. When this behavior is learned, add a
third weave pole. (Note that with an even number of poles the exit is in
the same direction as the entrance, and on the opposite side. See diagram.)
^ exit
o o o o o o
o o o o o o
^ entrance
Gradually increase the number of weave poles until ten (or twelve or whatever)
are present.
2. Teach the dog to target to a wand, and use the wand to "lead the dog by
the nose" through the poles.
Best to use short poles to make it easier for the handler! This can also be back
chained.
3. Staggering the weave poles, then bringing them closer together.
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
to this
o o o
o o o
o o o
o o o
to this
o o o o o o
o o o o o o
4. Leaning weave poles, then gradually raise them to straight vertical
(commercial version from Max200 is called "Weave-O-Matic").
5. Weave poles with channels. You make these yourself.
5a. Chicken wire channels.
5b. Exercise pen channels.
5c. Clothesline wire channels.
5d. Polybutylene pipe or plastic tubing channels.
(You can also buy wire channels that slip over PVC poles)
6. Put them on a lead and guide them in the direction you want them to go.
7. The "old bump-and-grind" method: have them walk through and place
your inside leg a step toward them to guide them into the next pole, then step
away to pull them through the poles toward you. Repeat.
8. An alternate to 5 & 6 that provides more control over the dog: Put
your hand in the dog's collar, palm up, back of hand against the back of dog's
neck. You can pull the dog but more you're using the collar to turn his
head in the direction you want him to go.
And rather than actually shoving with hips, you carefully place your feet so
that your left foot is against the next pole when you turn them out (so starting
with the 2nd pole) so your body is also directing him away, and then your right
foot is away from the next pole when you turn them in (so starting with the 3rd
poles, again using your body to draw him toward you.
When the dog is coming thru towards you, you say "Come" and can also
use a target (food or toy) in your right hand to "pull" them through;
when going away from you, say "weave".
Poles: x x x
x x x x x x
x x x
Left foot: L
L L L
L L
your body: / \ / \
/ \ / \ / \
/
Right foot: R R
R R R
R
You can see that your legs & body essentially form a channel on one side of
the poles. (If you're on the left side of the poles, you need to reverse
the actions of your hands & legs--right does what left did, etc. I found
that tougher to do as a right-hander.)
The first
point is that for ANY of the methods that I know of to teach weave poles, if the
handler is a skilled trainer there will be NO difference to the finished
product. I know of dogs taught by the old pull you push me method that can send
on ahead into the poles, find all the nasty entries, recall through and most
definately weave left and right handed (or should that be pawed??). It simply
depends on the skill of the handler and the level to which they are prepared to
push their training.
Having said all that, the method that we use at Benbow Agility Club is the
channel as we have found that more people have success training this way. When
reading what follows you should bear in mind a few points, firstly that we do
not use wires. I once saw a very nasty accident with the wires and disposed of
them immediately afterwards. We don't miss them. Poles in a straight line are
difficult and are hard work, so it makes sense to to me to teach the dog to stay
in them whilst they are wide apart and therefore easy to do. If you have a dog
with a lot of "drive" it won't make much difference, if you don't then
this can really make a difference to the dog's attitude to the finished
"product".
The second point is that again, we teach it all from a recall and send-away. NOT
with the handler going with. The reasons are several, the most important being
that weaving takes a lot of concentration. Many handlers just can't be quiet (!)
and they dance around and chatter away and its no wonder that the poor dog can't
weave. Try it one day - I'd need to concentrate too!! Teaching the poles this
way conditions the handlers to let the dog get on and do the weaves without them
and prevents over management. It also stops the handlers doing more on the left
than the right or whatever and shows them that the dog can weave without them,
so it doesn't really matter which side they are on!!
We begin with a channel that is set to twice the shoulder width of the biggest
dog in the class and just get the dogs pelting though. We have handlers running
away, balls flying about and if REALLY necessary, food pots placed out/thrown
out. All from a send and recall. By the second week they should all be able to
send their dogs on through and recall through, with the dog starting just inside
the "mouth" of the channel and the send-away marker/handler just
inside the exit. Over the next few weeks we bring the poles in until they are
just wider than the dogs' shoulders and gradually move the dog's starting place
out and the send-away marker/handler out so that the dog is beginning to enter
and exit on his own. We ask that handlers practice twice a day for 5 mins and
aim for at least 5 paces into and out of the poles. If mistakes are being made
then you have gone too far too quickly, lay the foundations well and it won't
happen. DON'T reward a dog for trying, as if you do, trying is all that you'll
get. Reward the completed task.
The next stage is to gradually "fan" out the starting position of the
dog so that they learn to find the first pole, straighten themselves and pelt
through. When the dog can find his entry from beside the poles about half way
up, we also begin to "fan" out the sendaway marker or the handler
position when recalling. Gradually this is moved round until the dog actaully
has to go PAST it (on the outside of the poles) to find the last pole.
By now you have a dog that knows how to find his entry point and where the last
pole is and so you simply move the poles in together until they are in a
straight line.
The finished result depends purely on the amount of time the handler is willing
to invest. Over the years we have found this to be the method which produces the
highest proportion of confident dogs that know their job in the poles.
I'll say again that ANY of the methods in the right hands will produce results
that are just as good as the ones that we get this way, but it has been my
experience that the others produce a greater amount of dogs that are dependant
on their handlers for the weaving action. Regards, Jo Sermon and Beardies
from Surrey in the UK.
Let me preface
this with a lot of disclaimers. <g> First of all, this is a very driven,
highly motivated Sheltie, who had a thorough understanding of, and love for,
weaving. Not sure you would want to try it with a dog that has a "so
so" attitude on poles already. Further, I am quite sure I am going to
mangle at least some aspect of Jen and Susan's thoughts and direction here.
That's why THEY are Jen Pinder and Susan Garrett, and I'm not. <VBG>
Finally, Fancy (the Sheltie in question) is a fairly long bodied Sheltie.
Shorter coupled dogs would, I imagine, have more difficulty with this AND, she
finds it difficult to single stride at indoor shows, where she's on mats or that
carpet stuff. I don't know if that will come with experience or not. Those darn
things are so slick, if she doesn't feel her footing is secure enough to do it
there, *I'm* not going to fault her for it.
The basic idea is a restrained recall sort of thing. As Susan pointed out, what
happens when your dog is pulling on the leash? Their front legs are doing a
"digging", out to the side sort of motion, right?
We set up about 6 poles (I think), and put the dog on leash. Poles need to be
SHORT (so you don't get lead tangled in them) and you will hold the lead at
about a 45 degree angle up and back from the dog. Make sure that you are not
leading them back and forth through the poles. Keep it straight up and back from
their neck.
First thing was, teach the polite Sheltie she can pull on leash. <g>
Lianne held squeaky toy (and clicker), I hold dog, on leash, at end of poles
Lianne called the dog from other end, saying "weave", squeaking toy.
Fancy wanted the toy and Lianne, so she begins
weaving, starts bouncing, I gradually increase tension on lead, SMALL amounts at
a time, for this dog. She gets clicked for doing poles on lead, with me (in her
mind) hampering it all the way.
In the next times through, I increase my tension on the lead, forcing her to
pull more. The first time Lianne sees Fancy making an effort at single tracking,
due to the tension on the leash, she clicks, I let go, they have a big play
session. Great, we try again. I REALLY make the dog pull on that leash to
progress through the poles, her feet are digging to the side, first sign of
that, Lianne clicks again, I let go, play time. We did that several times, then
gradually increased how many poles she had to single track through to get the
click.
At camp this past weekend, Jen demonstrated a way to do this without a second
person to help. She first taught the dog, on the flat, to drive to a toy on the
ground, then put the toy at the end of the weaves and had the dog drive to it.
Personally, I'm glad I have someone to train with to help. <g> Lianne also
found it easier to see the change in the dog's weaving style form in front of
her, at the end of the poles, rather than above and behind on lead.
We did this a 2-4 session/day for about 4 days one week, then at the next trial,
noticed the dog doing SOME single tracking. We began to see improvement at
trials fairly quickly, and she has now cut time WAY down on weaving. The other
problem they had with the bounce was that with twelve poles, that bounce tends
to get wider as they go
along, and she might miss the last couple of poles by bouncing out too far!
The key was, IMO, that she didn't have to complete a set of poles, just got
rewarded the MOMENT her action changed to what we wanted, which, I think, is the
joy of clicker training, being able to mark those SMALL things so well.
Lianne's Border Terrier definitely cold use some weaving help, but I am not sure
those straighter terrier shoulders have it in them to single stride. I will say
though, Peanut (the BT) did also complete all 60 poles, and did it in just over
23 seconds. Not bad!
I AM thinking of trying this with my PWD. Think I can change her at 9 years old?
<g> Lisa Baird
From Chris Parker who along with 19-month-old Border Collie named Mayhem ran the 60 Weave Pole Challenge in 9.54 seconds on August 20, 2000.
My weave
training method of choice is the Weave-A-Matic method (available thru Max200
800-446-2920). Both my dogs that broke the world record were trained from the
ground up with the WAM method. Some of my other dogs in the past were trained
with the channel/chute method. I have found, for me, that the channel/chute
method created "hoppers", dogs that put two feet on each side of the
poles and *hop* back and forth thru them, in effect weaving around the poles,
and some would bend too much (NOTE: short backed and some small dogs tend to
*hop* no matter what method used). Not that there is anything wrong with dogs
hopping through the poles. Its just not the way I want *my* dogs to weave. I am
sure there are plenty of people who have trained dogs to single track (one foot
on each side of each pole) with channels/chutes, I just haven't had any success
achieving single tracking with channels/chutes with my own or my students dogs.
My overall goal in teaching weave poles is that I want dogs to weave *through*
the poles, not around them. I am looking for the dog to keep a very tight, fast,
efficient line thru the poles, to find and to keep a *rhythm* with his footwork
all the way thru the poles without breaking stride.
With the "WAM" method, I introduce the dog to the poles completely
open. I work the dogs from a recall position (I do *not* walk alongside the
dogs). I use a helper if I don't have a stay with young dogs. I stand in the
line of poles straddling the base. I hold a motivator exactly at the dogs head
height and centered in the poles. With the motivator held at dog head height I
work to encourage the dog to hold his top line flat with his head, neck and
shoulder level. This encourages the dog to use his head and shoulder to *push*
the poles aside. Dogs don't tend to *hop* when they are leading with their nose,
so you end up with single tracking dog that drives forward and pushes *through*
the poles. Another thing that works at this point to encourage single tracking
is to attach a leash and buckle collar to the dog and have someone hold the
leash from behind the dog keeping a little bit of pressure on the leash. In
effect making the dog *pull* a bit. I haven't had to do this but I have seen it
done and it works well for dogs that are structurally capable of single tracking
but are finding it hard to get the rhythm.
Once the dog gains confidence and understanding I start moving the poles to an
upright position slowly (starting at the center of the poles and working out). I
gauge confidence and understanding in the dog when they move thru the poles with
rhythm and/or start trying to *jump* over the bottoms of the poles to get to me.
I get to about 6 inches off center (centered being straight up) usually within
the first few sessions.
I sometimes have to hold the motivator out in front of where I am standing to
get the dog to weave in between the poles and not just come straight to me
without weaving. Usually I can reach out 3 poles towards the dog. I alternate
with poles on the left and right side of my arm so as the dog weaves towards me
I can pull straight back with the motivator effectively pulling the motivator
between the poles in the same direction and sequence I want the dog to weave.
When I do that I pull the motivator straight back towards myself keeping it just
a bit ahead of the dog. I do *not* weave the motivator back and forth thru the
poles in big arching side to side moves, I pull it back towards me in a straight
line. When the dog gets to the toy (and me) he is released. I do not step out of
the poles at any time. NOTE: you need to keep your body very still (no side to
side movement) when you teach from a recall position otherwise the dog loses his
focus on the poles and starts to look at you. Obviously is you are reaching the
motivator out towards the dog you will be moving forward and then standing
upright, that is ok, its the side to side "weave dance" that you need
to avoid. If you train alone, video tape yourself. And yes, at first some dogs
focus on the motivator and not the poles, but they start to get the idea in no
time to keep their focus on the poles. If a dog misses a pole, I just start over
with a "Nice try, let go try it again". Once they succeed a few times
and
get their toy/treat they get the idea quickly. I have also found that dogs
trained to weave with a recall don't get distracted in the poles as easily.
I progress slowly and work my way backwards thru the poles until I am doing a
full set of 12 (or more). Every time I move the poles up a quarter of an inch I
move back to straddling the pole base at around the 2nd or 3rd pole. I then work
my way backwards again thru the poles. I keep the poles at 1-2 inches off center
for a while, usually about 4 weeks. This is the point in training where I want
to build muscle and rhythm memory.
I work all my angled entries at this time. When the poles reach a full straight
up position the dog already is experienced with angled entries. Once all that is
taught and the poles are straight up, I start working sending the dog thru the
poles. I put the motivator on a chair or something close to head height of the
dog and send him to it. I like to use food or a toy in a container at this point
so that if the dog pulls out of the poles he can't be rewarded unless I open the
container.
In the final polishing stage I start moving along side the dogs while he is in
the poles. I work to find a place along side the dog where he is comfortable.
Each dog has a different comfort zone where he wants his handler to be, I work
hard to find that "zone". Usually, I find that keeping my body even
with his shoulder or hip and focusing on the pole ahead of him works best
(though one of my dogs likes me to run to the end, face him and wait from him to
weave to me). I add jumps before and after and all that at this
time.
When entry problems, exit problems or other problems arise (and they will) I
just bend a pole out here or there and work the problem out.
Please note that I did not train my dogs to *just weave*... I trained them to
weave FAST and of course to weave accurately. This is what was important to
*me*. So my method of teaching the poles is not for everyone, it's worked for me
with multiple dogs and its worked for most of my students dogs. Of my two dogs
that broke the world record, both learned to weave in about 5 weeks. The Golden
started training weaves at about 12 months old, the BC started training at about
6 months old. The Golden had the best overall success and is the most solid
weaver I have, the BC still has entry issues (doesn't slow and rock his weight
back enough on entry so I have to slow him manually with a "lie down"
command). My youngest dog (a BC) started weaving at 10 months. She is now 12
months and her poles are 1/2 inch off center. We haven't worked as hard on
weaving as my other two dogs because she isn't coming out into competition for a
few more months. So there's no pressure. She does have a short back... will she
single track??? We'll see. What ever rhythm she finds the most comfortable is
fine with me (you cant force a dog to single track if its not built for it). But
whatever rhythm she chooses... I will train her to do it FAST ;)
Not all dogs are built to single track. Some dogs are too small to single track.
I use this method with all my students dogs, short backed, small, etc. It
produces fast weavers, whether they single track or not, whatever rhythm the dog
finds comfortable, they do it with speed, accuracy and happy attitudes, which is
the most important aspect of any method I use. It works for me, Chris Parker
You can start
"teaching weaves" almost as soon as they can walk! When I got my
Pap pup at 3.5 months of age, we started learning "agility stuff"
right away. For him, I set up my offset training weaves into a channel wide
enough apart so he could run through them without being nervous or having the
poles touch him at all. I would lure him through the channel with a toy or food,
the only object was to get him to learn to run down the line. Over the
next month or so I gradually moved them closer together so that after a couple
of months he could just feel the poles touch his sides as he went thru. We
worked on running though the channel, and sending to the poles, and entries -
but no actual weaving. He learned very quickly what we needed to do. He was
probably 10 or 11 months old before I closed the training weaves up all the way
occasionally - since they are offset weaves though he still wasn't weaving thru
a straight line of poles. However, he knew all the moves. When he was
about 13 months old, I started doing the "real" weaves with him. This
technique worked for us, and he has awesome weaves! Since he's a tiny dog,
he matured physically more quickly than a larger breed, so
maybe you'd want to delay closing the offset weaves a bit longer. Alice
Simpson.
Here is what
has worked for me and in over 30 trials this year, my veteran dog has missed a
weave entrance once and my young hellion has missed just one since I retrained
him.
In practice I set up very difficult situations which make the dogs really focus
or miss the weaves. I use lots of ideas from Jane Simmons-Moake tapes to
proof the dogs. I have people stand on either side of the poles and play
with their dogs. They can throw balls, squeak toys, have them bark, run in
the opposite direction, or crowd my dogs. I put toys in the middle of the
weave poles so they must ignore them. I have offset weaves set in a base
and I will deliberately have the poles set the wrong way so they have to work
very hard to enter correctly. The same can be done with the flexible
weave-a-matics - bend them the wrong way and see if the dog will nail the
correct entrance. I will pull away from the dog at either end of the poles
again to teach them they must complete the weaves regardless of what I am doing.
Before I attempted any of this I made sure my dogs could perform the basics of
weaving, meaning without distraction could enter correctly at speed from any
angle and finish them. They were both taught with wires so they knew the
purpose of wires and did not jump them. If your dog is not solid without
distraction he is not ready for this.
Then I gradually removed wires starting from the middle until they were all off.
Only then did I begin with the proofing program. I started with one or 2
people about 10 feet on either side of the poles. They were to create a
commotion. If my dog correctly completed the poles I whooped it up and
played with him. If he did not, I said, "Uh oh" at the place
where the error was made. I then put wires on in that exact spot and
recreated the distracting scene and sent him through again. When he did
them right I whooped it up again then repeated without the wires to see what I
got. If he did it wrong the wires went back on. If he did it right I
praised, treated, played then repeated it once more to make sure it was not a
fluke. Once he did it 2 or 3 times correctly without wires but in the
presence of distractions I quit.
Gradually I would increase the difficulty of the proofing always stopping and
putting the wires back on to teach, but then removing them to get the finished
product. Eventually there was nothing they couldn't handle.
I found before I did all this if my dog missed any part of the weave poles in a
trial, if I let him go on without redoing them he would repeat that mistake in
the next class. So I always stopped my dog at the point of error and redid
the weaves in a trial. I never wanted him to think sometimes he doesn't
have to do them right. It's an all or nothing situation.
I also made sure to move my weave poles in practice so they did not know when
they were coming. I found they get pattern trained if they are always in
the same place in the yard. So I kept setting up new sequences and also
made sure I had both rigid and springy weaves to practice on. My faster
dog hated being slowed down by the rigid ones and it was only after I bought a
set to practice with did he start nailing them consistently in a trial. Hope
this helps. Mary Whorton
Some time ago,
there were a series of three articles that ran concurrently in "Clean
Run" on three different methods of training weave-poles. I wrote the
article on the "Wire and Channel" method which I in turned had learned
years earlier from Peter Lewis' video tape "Advanced Agility Training"
. I am now training my fourth dog using that method. For the details of
the method, I would refer you back to the Clean Run article or to Peter Lewis'
videotape, but let me say a few words about it's application in general.
First of all, let me say that I think if applied properly, you teach the entry,
speed and weaving simultaneously. Over time the dog learns to negotiate
the weaves as a single obstacle essentially as an infinitely narrow channel and
not as a series of individual poles. This is why if for any reason the dog
comes out of the poles, you cannot correct the mistake from where the dog popped
out, you have to go back to the beginning. Secondly, my experience with the
method is that you have to be extremely patient, you cannot rush through the
method. My approach has been to start a puppy on the poles at a very young
age and spend several months in the process. My nearly 9 month old Aussie
pup has been working the channel now for about 5 months during which time, I
have very gradually worked the channel down from 24" to about 3".
At about 3" she is just beginning to bend very slightly, she can
enter the channel from all angles from distances of up to 30', but at this point
if I put the poles in a straight line she would not have a clue, we still have
several months to go in the process, but then she won't be old enough to compete
for another 9 months, so why rush. If I run into a problem like not
entering properly or jumping out of the channel, I am not afraid to back
up a bit and widen the channel and go through the routine until the dog is solid
again, then narrow the channel again.
In the case of Jan's border collie, I would not hesitate to back up a few steps,
e.g. open up the channel to a few inches and continue to work on those angled
entries. One drill that I've used with Rusty for years is to stand
perpendicular facing the poles about 15 to 20 feet away (making a "T"
with the line of weave poles and have the dog sit facing me with his back to the
poles then send him right and left through the poles from that position.
One observation that I've made is that a sharp angled entry from the right
"heel" side is more difficult than from the left "off" side
because from the left the dog learns to go around the first pole into the
"channel and from the right the may focus on the second or third pole
instead of the first for the entry, so just to make sure, I may give them
a "push" out from the right side to make sure they see the end of the
line of poles.
One other thing that is very fundamental, but also very important is to make
sure that the training channel is set up for proper entry. Always use an
even # of total poles 8 or 10 or 12. Since the dog enters from right to
left through the first two poles, the first pole the dog should encounter
is the one on the left side of the channel, eg the first pole should be off the
dog's left shoulder, the second pole on the right hand side of the
channel should be off the dog right shoulder, e.g.
1 3
5 7
9
o----------o---------o----------o----------o
o---------o----------o----------o-----------o
2 4
6 8
10
I try to make our weave poles exercises a fun game with treats and toys and lots
of upbeat praise.
Finally, what I see in competition many time are dogs that can weave but
don't know how to find the entry on their own, so the handler will try to guide
the dog into the entry and in many cases actually get into the dog's space so
they can't or won't enter. I was judging someplace and I watched one fast
Border Collie miss every weave pole entry in every class they ran upon which the
handler would call the dog back and whip to dog in a smart move around behind
him into the poles which he (she) nailed every time. Well
what had that dog been taught? If the dog misses in competition and you
have to bring them back try to get the dog to find the entry on their own, if
they don't go on skip the poles and go back to the drawing board. Hope
this helps. Kent Mahan
You've hit the
nail on the head.
1) Teach her a reliable Steady command away from the poles and then use it in
the trial. It should be timed as the dog performs the preceding obstacle so she
has a chance to react. If Steady doesn't steady the dog, try Wait (a stop to
gradually be phased out).
2) Simulate her trial speed at home by setting up 2 jumps leading into the
poles. Do Jump-jump-poles until she does the entry correctly (praise and
reward). Then move jump #2 closer to the poles by a few inches. Repeat
Jump-jump-poles until she does the entry correctly (praise and reward). Then
move jump #2 closer to the poles. Repeat until the dog literally lands in the
poles (jump #2 is about 5 feet from the first pole for a medium sized dog). Do
*not* help the dog with the Steady command (save that for the trial); but *do*
be sure to say Weave as the dog's front feet leave the ground for jump
#2 (or sooner, even at jump #1). Do not use wires for this exercise. You
want the dog to make mistakes and learn from them. I personally believe it helps
to gently tell the dog when it is wrong with a verbal cue (some may prefer only
reward the correct behavior, but I believe the dog needs to *know* what *is*
correct and what *is not* correct. Dogs
need help understanding that it is important to go between poles *1 and 2*. Most
dogs will learn to enter with the first pole on the left but will just enter
wherever momentum carries them; until you show them they *must* check themselves
for the entry between 1 and 2). When using this exercise, first set the jumps
straight into the poles but then progress to angled entries. 3) be sure the dog
knows to look for the poles and can send to them from about 15 feet away (this
is about how far you will be from them when doing
the preceding obstacle on the trial course). You can follow up behind the dog,
but the dog must look away from you and seek out the poles from 15 feet away
(work up to it).
4) be sure you work *sequences* with the poles in them at home (with short
distances). The dog needs to practice at speed. Don't just stand and send to the
poles and marvel at what difficult entries the dog can do at home. Linda
Mecklenburg, Clean Run
© Agility Ability and the noted authors of some of the individual listings.
Clicker Training Weave Poles Article by Robert Loftus.
Popping Weave Poles article from Power Paws.
