Thursday, August 18, 2011

Weave Pole Entrances

Seven continues to make progress on her weave poles.  I have now removed all of the guide wires except for the 2 on the end.  I really do not think she needs them, but popping out a pole or two early is a common problem so I am not rushing to remove them.

I am especially working hard on Seven's entrances.  The dog must enter the weave poles with the first pole on the left.  Generally, a straight entry is considered the easiest for the dog.  The more the dog is angled from the left or the right, the tougher the entrance.  Certain angles make it very easy for the dog to just skip the first couple of poles.  Entering the poles from a 90 degree angle can be especially difficult because the dog has to make a very tight turn in order to resume weaving.

Offsetting the first two poles can help the dog learn to make that tight turn by starting easy and gradually increasing the difficulty by moving the first two poles closer and closer to in line with the other poles.

Here is a video of some of Seven's progress.
And to Bloggers, Witty Angel and Amy/Layla, I do visit your blogs, but cannot comment because you have it set to "embedded below the post". I think you would get more comments if you fix.