Iowa Weave Pole Challenge - Part 2

Seeker and I have been working on a different weave pole challenges involving, entries, crosses, converging and diverging. All of these challenges are realistic when it comes to running your dog in agility. 

What about those that aren't?  We've covered, cats, birds, handler's body position, and yes, even popcorn!!  Are you ready for another challenge?  How about running "toward" your dog while he's weaving?  Why?  Because you 'can' and it's fun!  Will it help you on an agility course?  Maybe?

What if you have a long 20' straight tunnel and a weave entry immediately following the exit toward you?  Maybe you can just stand and call your dog through the weaves toward you.  Wouldn't that be cool!  While everyone else is complaining about an impossible entry or the inability to 'get there', you are calm cool and collected because YOU'VE done your 'home work'!

Let's face it, everything we 'train', in reality it just a "trick".  Tricks are a BLAST TO TRAIN!  Right!  So, you're performance training shouldn't be any different.  Mix it up and have some fun!

I generally use a toy for training as Seeker finds it more rewarding than food.  That doesn't mean I never use food!  For the video I used a little of both.  He sometimes doesn't even see the food, so for him, a toy is more visual. For the video we used our Orange Wiener Dog he got from Aunt Rilda!  He's well LOVED!!

I also realized after watching this video, how lazy I get when I train with food!   I guess a stagnate reward makes me a stagnate trainer!  Something I need to work on if I'm using food.  See what a great tool video taping yourself is!!

To start, I used 6 poles.  Seeker was at one end and I was at the other.  He had an easy entry, set up about 15' back from the entry.  I was about 5' from the exit of the poles and lateral about 5'.   I tossed the toy on the ground directly lateral to me. I released Seeker and told him to weave.  I didn't move.  Big game of tug!  

I slowly started taking one step forward.   At first, this was difficult for him, he wanted to turn in the direction I was going.  Very understandable!  So, I'd just take a smaller step, or literally just lift one foot up.  Huge game of tug on any successful completion. 

It didn't take long before I could walk slowly, then jog, then run toward him.  It was amazing how fast he caught on!  Short sessions are also the key!  It took me longer to move the pause table and get my flip video camera set up then it did to do this sequence.  We didn't weave more than 6 or 7 times.  That was plenty! 

If you're curious on how Seeker was trained to weave, I used Susan Garrett's 2 X 2s.  We both LOVED IT!  The key, no matter how you train, is to HAVE FUN!!  Challenge yourself and your dog!  It keeps training interesting!