# KW&M -- Weave Time!



## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Well we just moved last Thursday so things have been a little insane. The weather was decent after work today so I took the opportunity to get a little weave practice in before an upcoming trial...without access to an indoor facility, I don't know when we'll have another chance to practice!

This is a new place for the dogs obviously, and virtually all of their training has been indoors, but I'm happy with how they did in a new place. 

All very short vids -- <10 seconds up to 49 seconds I believe.


Kim's vid...well I thought I had turned the recorder on but I guess I didn't...so when I turned it "off" at the end it was already off and so I turned it on...so the only one I have of her is a last weave we did at the end...we had done a few tough exercises so after turning off the recorder I thought...hm maybe we should just do a quick easy run through to end...





Web is coming back for a big setback about two months ago...I started to proof him for me being more stationary, and stopped too suddenly...being Web and being incredibly soft w/ regards to me (though he'd flip off about anyone else even if they were intentionally correcting him), he took me suddenly stopping as a correction and totally shut down. So we've been doing short, calm-but-happy sessions to build confidence.





And Mira, who is of course not entered in trials yet but who is working on a bit of proofing. Today being a new place, we just did a "send-ahead" where she drives past me and out of the weaves, a call-through where she is totally responsible for finding the weave entrance because I'm hanging out on the far end, and another one with me in motion. For her the left-hand is a bit tougher than the right-hand so we worked mostly on that side since I wanted to keep the session short today.






~Cheers~
Shai & Crew


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## MissMutt (Aug 8, 2008)

Curse you for having ball-driven dogs!

And, I stand corrected. I said that I thought shaping produces yucky weaves.. you said you trained all three dogs by shaping exclusively.. and all three of your dogs' weaves are really wonderful. I guess I must just be around people who are fudging it up.

I am SO excited to see Mira when she debuts in competition. Do you have any idea when that might be? What things do you need to work on before then?

More videos! Please!


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Okay first off, only one of my dogs has innate ball drive, and that's Mira. Well, retrieve drive, which became ball drive by association. Kim and Web were shaped to have ball drive and while they love it, it's a means to an end for them, very very much a case of delayed reward. The first time I threw a ball for Web he wandered off in the other direction...didn't even have enough interest to walk over and sniff it, or chase it, even after I'd just made a fuss over the thing for the last few minutes...it took six months of dedicated shaping to get him to retrieve a tennis ball (he was new to shaping and it was seriously a case of...Look at it...Lean slightly in its direction...Take a step...[fast forward several months]...Touch it with your nose...Open your mouth on it....Put your mouth on it...Pick it up... etc. It was excruciating lol.

As for how they learned...

Kim learned by Channel Weaves with Weave-o-matics mixed in, then I went back and "fixed" her entries.

Webster was intro'd by Channels/WOM but just did. not. get. it. He could weave like a dream until they poles were perfectly straight then he was lost and confused. I think he's just too detail-oriented for it...he fixates on minute differences and couldn't see it as the same thing at all...so several months of this we took a 6-month break from weaves and went back and relearned all by shaping with 2x2.

Mira learned all by shaping but with less clicker than Web...I used a clicker for the first 2 poles and when there were two sets of two but after that did not as I think the clicker is too precise for what I wanted here. Still shaping, but no clicker. Basically a slightly modified 2x2 type introduction...taking what I'd learned from Webster and adapting just a bit to suit Mira. She already has the best weaves of the three in that this is her 4th or 5th session ever with 12 poles, and her 3rd session ever outdoors, and she just isn't phased at all...her ability to find an entrance is just great, I love it. She was exposed to weave-o-matics once...just to see what she'd do. She basically leapt in to about the 9th pole, scattering things every which way, and bludgeoning the heck out of herself and the equipment. I decided that we would just continue as planned and forget about WOM lol.



MissMutt said:


> I am SO excited to see Mira when she debuts in competition. Do you have any idea when that might be? What things do you need to work on before then?More videos! Please!


Me too. Running this dog in competition is going to be one heck of a rush. I can already see myself getting addicted. She does continue to have that "OMG better you than me" effect on most people. Something about being rather overwhelming...??? She is just perfect to me.

That said we have a ways to go. She's a fairly sizeable dog and moves at the speed of light but we are just starting to work on jump training now, and will be having a strong emphasis on jumping clean and turning efficiently (she would have no concerns about demolishing every jump in the place so needs to be taught that keeping bars up is desireable), contact performance (she has a nice natural stride and is fearless on all contact equipment now but needs a better understanding of criteria) and just generally gaining a fluency of handling at speed. I'm in no rush...she has so much potential that my main focus is gaining fluency and control without sacrificing that crazy, exhilarating speed.


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## MissMutt (Aug 8, 2008)

She does definitely have the best weaves. The power and speed is absolutely amazing!

I will have to try shaping with Marge. I have shaped her to tug and she will do it as long as there's a cookie around. The problem I run in to is that she shows absolutely no interest in old toys. The only time I can use a toy as an agility reward is if it's brand new. 

I'd really like it if I can teach her to retrieve a tennis ball.. even if I can't use it as a reward, it'd be a nice means of exercise.


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Actually if you time them I think Web and Mira's are about the same. I don't have a stopwatch here (still at the old place) so I can't say for sure. She's bigger though so it looks faster. She is speeding up as she gets more efficient.

And good luck  I couldn't really use retrieving as an exercise for K as she would retrieve but not fast...maybe with Web but I'd have to have killer food in the background to make it last long. Mira I could I guess but I don't...we do some for fun but unless there's a large body of water handy I can't possibly throw enough to wear her out physically, even with a chuck-it. It's more valuable to me as a reinforcement and for brain games.


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## MissMutt (Aug 8, 2008)

You make a good point about speed and retrieving... because while she will retrieve a toy (a la Rally Level 3 bonus exercise), she does it at a trot, never faster. 

Maybe one of those food pouch things can work for Marge. That the dog has to bring back to you in order to get the food out of. I dunno.

And yeah, upon re-watching Web and Mira do look pretty close in terms of speed. I guess it's the fact that she can haul that long-legged body of hers through the weaves so quickly that is impressing me. Though it's equally impressive to see a little dog with fast weaves.. ah nevermind lol



> That said we have a ways to go. She's a fairly sizeable dog and moves at the speed of light but we are just starting to work on jump training now, and will be having a strong emphasis on jumping clean and turning efficiently (she would have no concerns about demolishing every jump in the place so needs to be taught that keeping bars up is desireable), contact performance (she has a nice natural stride and is fearless on all contact equipment now but needs a better understanding of criteria) and just generally gaining a fluency of handling at speed. I'm in no rush...she has so much potential that my main focus is gaining fluency and control without sacrificing that crazy, exhilarating speed.


Well, I can't wait to see the MACHs come rolling in for her.


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Haha I know what you mean. Mira "feels" faster too when she goes but Webster really goes nuts when he gets going...he hits the weaves so fast sometimes that he practically wraps his body all the way around trying to make that third pole without slowing...then he growls as he does it because he's mad he has to collect because he wants to GET TO THE END NAO! lol

The food bag is a great idea depending on the type of dog you have. Works great for Web (I use those clear plastic tubes for certain things with him) as long as I do a really short one first to remind him that as soon as he gets it to me, I open it for him. Kim would bring it back but not any faster because the whole way back she'd be trying to think of ways to foodnap it and open it herself. 

As for that last comment...one thing at a time lolol


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

Nice job, all 3!!!!


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## LynnI (Mar 27, 2010)

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Thanks  We have fun playing around lol


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

So after watching myself in the last vids I realized I was falling into old habits of trotting along at pace with Mira which is something I don't EVER want to do with her...she doesn't need it and I don't want her to need it because I am likely going to need to use the weaves to get myself down course.

So worked a little bit of lateral sends/distance on Monday as dusk fell. Hard to tell but in the second one I'm actually around pole 6 when I send her so she 180s in, and I'm quite a ways ahead when she exits. 







ETA: This was Monday before the ice storm...it was actually warm all day so the snow was mostly gone in the lawn and the ground was softish without being slick. Brief window...gone now


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## Finkie_Mom (Mar 2, 2010)

Woooaaahhhhh you put my dinky video to shame!!!! 

They're looking awesome! When do you get to start competing with Mira???


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## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

Finkie_Mom said:


> Woooaaahhhhh you put my dinky video to shame!!!!
> 
> They're looking awesome! When do you get to start competing with Mira???


Not at all you guys are looking great

And not for quite a while though she goes to any trial that has ample crating space...she is my Ringside Sidekick. 

We are working on jumping and and contacts, though I really need access to full size contacts again. She has a lot of potential and desire but not a lot of self-preservation so I want her very very fluent before we start with competitions...not worth risking either her safety or her career to rush in early.


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