Oct 5th - at home

So today was Day 7 of our 12 day weave pole training. I had Rick come out to video both boys doing their weaves. I have moved to 4 straight poles and poles 1 & 2 at 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock, staked. This was Rip's first time doing 6 poles together since we started back at 2x2's. His first few times he did really nice entries, nice second set and then missing the third set all together. It took him about 5 times with me in my "happy place" before he got it. After that he did really well.



Baxter was next and because I thought he was getting caught up in the poles, we video taped him to see if I could figure out what is going on. From what I can see (as you can probably too) it looks like I am rewarding at the wrong time/too high?! He looks like he is more interested in leaping out to get the food than he is to finish weaving the way he is in the middle. I did the clips so you see in normal motion, then slow motion of the same clip. You can see he is really digging in and getting that entry nice, single striding but the exit is scary! When you look at it from the back that is almost even more scary...I wonder what other dogs look like from that angle. From Ripley's, it looks like the same way but he is smaller/skinnier so maybe that makes a difference. I have a few people looking at this video so I will update what others thought.



So Tiffany (B's grandma) thinks that the poles look great but that his hind end is interesting, lol. She doesn't think he is really getting caught up in the poles, but that once he is in the poles he is all "front wheel drive", with his back end just following along. She is seeing that he is launching into the poles with his hind end and then switching to it being pulled through the poles with the front end. She said his entries were great :)

My other friend Sue looked at it and she said that it looks as though he is flowing the arc of the treat (although she thinks I am doing a great job of throwing it low :)) She gave me the suggestion of using a food tube placed ahead of time that might help keep his head down. Though this could be construed as luring, she felt that it was no more than sending to the next piece of equipment. A target would not work as he could reward himself even if he makes a mistake. She also thought his entries were great :)

I will have to see what Andrea thinks and update that.