Flying Poodles

Weaving and Wobbling Redux

Happy Halloween!

Cheryl had a hellish little course set up (appropriately) and I made it more hellish (if you’re a dog) by adding a set of two-by-twos to each end of the (12) weave poles, so that my poor girls had to weave 16 poles. It worked well, actually. Longer sets seem to help both dogs develop a good weaving rhythm.

I worked discrimination drills with Dancer, leading out from the table to the same position but cuing either the jump-to-the-left or the jump-to-the-right. It was organized such that there were four leadout jumps from the table, so that you could use three different positions and still cue left or right jumps. I also worked on running dogwalk behavior for both dogs, which went well. I have to remember to look at the contact. Where I look really matters.

Elly ran the course well and with enthusiasm, and we had a completely clean run (both sets of 16 weave poles) the second time; Dancer required a little more effort and close handling; it was clear that her puppy brain was pretty much fried by the time we were done.  Still she finished the weaves–second time through–with elan, and got a massive jackpot.

I also worked the wobble board with her. We started with the board in an area of deep shavings, and moved it to a more shallow area. She seemed very comfortable, and I think next week we might want to try the lowest possible teeter.