These are the chronicles of two Shetland Sheepdogs and their adventures in rally-o, obedience, flyball, agility, tracking and therapy dog work.
Also including information on raw feeding, canine epilepsy, positive training, and lots and lots of Sheltie hair!




Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Weave Pole Practice

Now that I have (sorta) gotten used to seeing my big bum on video, I've become quite a fan of video taping the various practices and trials that I do with the boys. I find that by watching myself on tape, I can see many things that I don't see when I'm actually working them.

Romeo has only been training in weave poles for a short while now. I think he is doing really well, and once I get my act together, he could be really good! (But maybe I'm just a little biased.)

I notice, now that I can watch from a different perspective, that there are a couple of things I want to clean up. He looks at me after every second pole, so I've really got to work on patterning more than two poles at a time. I do eventually want to phase out the hand signals, as well, but for the time being, it keeps him from popping out too soon. I also think for the that next practice session I'm going to chuck his treat back after the last pole so that he fires out away from the poles instead of looping back to me.

I am impressed at how well he is catching on to the off-side entries, though! He isn't anywhere near consistent yet, but he'll get the off-side weaves about 75% of the time. After all those little things are cleaned up, I'm going to start adding distance and send from different angles.

6 comments:

Kim said...

Hi,

You are on the right track!

I think that throwing his treat (do you use a goodie container) or toy after the last pole will really help keep him from turning back to you. It should also help with his forward focus and keep him driving through the poles without needing to check in with you so often.

You can also do recalls through the poles - this will help with independent weaving and speed.

GeeRome said...

Thanks Kim! I like the sound of the recalls. I'll give those a shot next time. (Will have to be soon ... it feels like snow outside and it might be hard to shove those poles into frozen ground! haha)

Scottie the 'Cutie' said...

Hi!

Wow, that's some really cool work there! I've not done any agility work with Scottie yet...he still lacks attention in his obedience classes.

Any tips on getting him to focus and pay attention to me? He somehow does very well when I practice with him at home and even at my neighborhood park, but when it comes to classes,he is so distracted it's frustrating.

Audrey

P/S: Is it okay if I add you to Scottie's buddies' list? Would love to!

Cowspotdog said...

Looking good there Romeo......you will be zooming through them so quick soon.

Chris and Ricky said...

Romeo is doing great! Funny how he looks at you so much and comes out of the poles a little but then still manages to do them right. He goes really fast when he kind of forgets to check in with you. And his entries do look awesome!

Sarah said...

good job he is coming along well, i agree with kim if you can get his focus a bit more forward that will work wonders for you, but he is getting a good rhythm and seems to be understanding his job!!

i love the music on the video!!

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