2X2 Weaves

Well, the funniest thing happened last night. Landon and Deets both had class with Terry, so we headed out to Frankston and Deets waited in his kennel for his beginner class while Landon had his private intermediate class with Terry. We were working on obstacle discrimination, which Landon was superb at. There was a set of 6 weave poles in the center of the ring, but we were not working them as Landon has had to go back and re-train the weave poles. I have been working him in channel weaves but had not yet taken the guards all the way to the top, so we haven't tried any poles without guards. While Terry and I were standing in the middle of the ring talking, Landon was upset because we were not paying attention to him. We both turned around and Landon was walking through the weave poles like it was second-nature, and turned around mid-poles to look at us like "well NOW you'll pay attention to me!" We decided to test his skills, so we ran some jump/weave sequences from all angles (around the clock) around the weaves, and he did them perfectly every time! Today, I set up my poles at home and he did all 12 great... we had to work hard at the second set of 6 at first, but he got it! He's about 80% accurate with them right now... but we'll get better!

Two days ago I got my Susan Garrett 2X2 weave training dvd in the mail. I spent all day Monday watching it over and over again and making notes. I did three sessions with Deets and Mimzy each through two poles, using the clicker method of training. Their shaping I"ve been doing with them has really helped. Both of them learned to run through the weaves in about 30 seconds. Our first session was only abot 2 minutes. By the end of Monday, both Deets and Mimzy could go through the set of poles from all the way around the clock at about 15 feet away.

Today, we did three more short sessions per dog and both of them go to the point of adding the second set of two poles. The poles start about 15 feet away from the first set, and both Deets and Mimzy figured out to run through both sets in about 2 minutes. Sessions once again were less than 5 minutes. By the end of the last session tonight, both could go through the two poles from all the way around the clock.

I am so thrilled with this method! This is my spring break so we have all week to do nothing but play with weave poles! YAY!