I filmed a few of Maddie's weave pole sessions last week. We work on the 2X2's almost every day for a few minutes and then the Weave-O-Matics (V-shape) when we go to my agility field a few times a week. She made good progress on both strategies this week. She was food motivated... in fact, even more than toy motivated in some instances. So I was able to use food in our sessions. I like doing a couple of reps with food and then ending with a toy that she can run around with. It is just not convenient to have her run around with a toy between every repetition. While she does love to tug, she is still a greyhound that loves to run with her toys so I also try to reward with that when it is appropriate.
With the 2X2s, Maddie can do 4 poles. You teach the dog to enter between 2 poles with the first pole passed by the left shoulder. And then they do the next 2 poles the same way and so on. Maddie's two sets of two poles are in a straight line so she does have to weave through them, but I still have them spaced further than 24 inches. I am moving them a tiny bit closer each day.
It is funny because the DVD for the 2X2 method says "12 Weave Poles in 12 Days". Ha! In my dreams! I looked back to see how long it took Reagan, Riley, and Seven to learn to weave since I have blogged about them since the beginning and they were all 8-12 months. But once they learned they were very good at it.
Maddie is now 16 months old and weighs 61 pounds. Still very much a goofy puppy, but shows some occasional signs of getting serious.
