Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Weave Pole Dilemma - Part 2

Katie, one foot weaving back when weave poles were flexible.
Ideally, Seven would learn the one foot style of weaving.  All of my good weaving greyhounds have used the one foot style of swinging a front leg around a pole and then swinging the other front leg around the next pole. 
Riley one foot weaving - Megan Underwood
The other method is a two foot style where the dog bounces through the weave poles placing two feet on the same side at the same time. 
Travis one foot weaving.
In the last post, I showed Seven working on pulling me through channel weave poles using a mostly one foot style.  I have paired that method with the 2X2 method (I will describe in future post).  The 2X2 method is great for teaching the dog how to enter the weave poles correctly from any angle (left shoulder has to pass the first weave pole for a correct entry).  Seven has been doing very well with the 2X2 method, but when I watched this video, I realized that she is using the two foot style.
Honestly, I do not care which method Seven chooses as long as she can do it well.  So far, she becomes quite jumbled and unable to 2 foot weave when the weave poles are not offset.  This makes me think that the one foot style makes more sense.  For now, I will stick with having her pull me through the channel weaves until she is able to weave with the poles in a straight line.  I hope to go back to the 2X2s and teach her entrances, but would prefer to wait until she has committed to a style of weaving.