Agility Training

[Guest posting as: Mary]

I'm trying to teach my little one the weave poles. It's hard to say the least. She seems to love the teeter we built her, but she absolutely refuses the weave poles.

I try exciting her by raising my voice, using food as an incentive, and guiding her thru by her leash. Still she just locks up her legs, or sits down. It's so frustrating. My husband spend an entire day making her weave poles, and now she acts like she does!

Any suggestions?

Mary

[Karen]

I re-trained my first cairn and entirely trained my second cairn on the channel weaves. They seemed to get the idea of what was expected so much better than guiding them thru or laying the poles on the ground and gradually raising them like the weave-o-matic that my first cairn was initially trained on.

The channel weaves let you pull the poles apart to make a "channel" between them. I started with a channel approx 12 inches wide since that's room enough for a cairn. First you teach the dog to run fast thru the channels, no weaving at all. You can sit at one end, bowl of treats at the other end, and have her run thru them to the treats. You and your hubby can sit at each end and just call her thru, no leash. Since she doesn't seem to like them, make this a game, and don't rush her thru the training. Then you very, very slowly close the channel, just a couple inches a week, especially if she still doesn't like doing them. Each time training them to go fast thru the whole set, treats at each end. You can train for speed from the beginning with these. As the channel closes, they have to start weaving a little, then more and more. The weaving is very gradual so they adjust to it over time. My second cairn learned the idea in just a few weeks and I've got good, solid weaves at a show.

I bought mine a couple years ago from Sam Turner in Florida. His are called KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) weaves. That's his name and meaning for them, not mine! I think they were about $120 with shipping. Very well made, securely shipped and packaged. They break down into 3 sets of 4 so you can start them on small parts. He's got a website (search on KISS weaves) so you can check the pictures there since I'm not sure I've explained this very well. You could probably make your own out of pvc since his are, I just didn't have the time. If you subscribe to Clean Run magazine, he's usually got an ad in there as well. A friend in Erie, PA (Denise Thomas and her hubby) also make them, her company is Countryside Agility. Search on Countryside Agility to see her prices on her website. If you live anywhere near Erie, you can pick them up and save the shipping. Or she'll bring them to a show with her and you don't have to pay shipping. She'll be at the Montgomery agility show in late Sept.

Some people feel small dogs do better on channels since they seem to understand what you want them to do better. I really like the method since my first dog picked up speed doing them that way, and my young dog learned them very quickly and very well. I do have regular weaves now that they've learned but I still use the channels as an extra set of weaves in the house.

Good luck!

Karen Majka

PEC Member