Weave Confusion and Contact Triumph

Completely and utterly confused is how I would describe Quick last night.  We started playing ‘the weave pole game’, and he lost steam very very quickly. He enjoyed all the cookies he gets as part of the game, but since he couldn’t see the point in looking at a pole, then putting his side against it… he got pretty upset.  I’m not sure that’s the best way for him to learn weaves. I may go back to using the channel method with wires (and 2×2 to learn entries).  There’s no real right or wrong way to train weaves – there’s what works for you and your dog, and what doesn’t! I don’t like it when he shuts down!

However, he was on fire for everything else!  We re-lowered the contacts since most of the dogs had been having trouble (last class, Quick took a nose dive off a full height dogwalk. Talk about heart attack!) and he did very well.  He is also doing amazingly well on his teeter! We’ve graduated to about a 10” drop, and a run-back both ways.  I’m beyond grateful that he really enjoys teeters. There are a few dogs in our class who would rather go to the vet than get on a teeter, and their handlers are doing great with them, but I’m grateful I have the dog I have.

Especially when he surprises me the way he did!  We were heading to our corner of the agility course to practice (he was leading me like always) and he decided that today would be a great day to try out a triple jump! He cleared it beautifully. I know that I hadn’t asked it of him so it doesn’t really ‘count’, but at the same time, it was very exciting to see!