Weaves

[June Bass]

What method do you use to train weaves & why

[Leanne Szostak]

V-Weaves for my Medium, Channel Weaves for my Very-Maxi collie.

I've found for smaller dogs, V-weaves are better for footwork and the poles are more obvious (in wide open Channel weaves, they don't really clock the poles as being part of the same obstacle). Have to admit I also found weave entries a lot easier to teach in V-Weaves. For larger dogs, I've found that Channel Weaves tend to work better for footwork and also that with Dylan in the V's, he tripped over the poles a lot and started jumping, which he never did in the Channels.

Think it's a matter of trying different things for different dogs though, I know a friend of mine taught her youngest by luring through uprights with a ball-launcher and he has brilliant fast independent weaves. I don't think I have the co-ordination for that method, I'd probably end up knocking my dog out with the ball launcher and getting tangled in the weaves myself!

[Nell Pegg]

Wired weaves with Dax - i.e normal weaves with plastic covered chicken wire looped between alternative weaves to form a curvy tunnelled weave - god how hard was that to explain & I'm still not sure anyone will understand!& Loki I clicker trained entry and used weeeeeeve as a bridging word.

i would recommend second method BIG time as he loved/loves the weaves.

I may be biased as am a huge clicker fan. (I also retrained him to socialise with other dogs by muzzling him, letting him loose & then click & treating after every good walk pass other dogs. Now he is fine but still looks back at me having passed a dog expecting his click & treat!)

[Leanne Szostak]

How did you clicker train the entry?

I love using the clicker with Dylan, he's a big foodie (unlike Kim!) but I wasn't sure how to clicker the weaves without causing him to pop out (ie. popping out after the entry expecting a click/reward?) without training the weaves be adding one pole at a time, and our weaves don't split so I couldn't do that. Would definitely be interested for any future dogs though!

[Nell Pegg]

Hi Leanne - Not sure if there is a correct way or not or more ways than one to clicker train weaves as I did not have a trainer to show me but trained my dogs myself this was purely trial and error - or maybe I should say experimentation!

I clicked once he had fully entered the first weave then as he looked for the expected & deserved treat I turned him through the next weave as I gave it to him(bit of a cheat as far as purist clicker training goes but hey ho), then just carried on weaving. I clicked again once he exited correctly at the end no matter how many weaves in between. Maybe I was just lucky but he seamed to cotton on quickly that going in the right place was good as was coming out the right place and anything in between you just kept going.

* Just a note - Mary Ray has a new book out (just in time for your Christmas wish list) called Superdog which covers clicker training obedience, tricks & agility £14.95 inc p&p. I haven't read it but fairly sure it will be a good reference - if interested check out her website http://www.maryray.co.uk

Also try Karen Pryor's website - I can't remember what it is - clickertraing.com or something like but if you put her name in it will come up & you can sign up free for the blog & ask that same question. I would be very interested to hear of other ways to train this & how you get on.

Good luck

[Jules Vickerman]

Weaves! After 2 years of really terrible weaves I've gone right back to channels and basics. Jette and Willow run to the end and get a click and treat, they think this is huge fun and much better than trying to get them to understand in other ways which they never seemed to 'get'. We do this for about 5 mins everyday, purely for fun. I'm slowly closing them and, if it takes all winter then that's how long it will take, just a little at a time. I realise gundogs are food motivated so high value treats are a must. Good luck everyone

Also re-training contacts too to 4x off (hopefully), it's going to be a long winter

[susan kannangara]

Hi,
I had problems with Poppy, but when I went to Cold Wet nose show they had 60 weaves challenge, and yes I had ago with Poppy, the first two attempts were rubbish, but on my third attempt she did it (took about aminute!) but we finally did it and since then we are able to do them - not good but are getting there, if she doesn't muck about or run pass them! so we are now improving. Doing 60 must have helped it to click.

[Gemma Miles]

Couldn't resist adding my tuppences worth!

I am not a great believer in 'gimmicks', and only use v or channels if I see a training aid is needed. I always start with the good old 'push and pull' method. NEVER using force but only a hand on the collar to guide them in and out. I never use treats in front of their nose as this encourages the dog to look at you and to weave with his head high (often producing a bouncy time wasting motion). Once they start to get it I gradually move my hand back to their shoulder blades so I can still guide them but not pull them around by their collar. Then I introduce a target (or toy) at the end to encourage speed.

Focas was trained on v-weaves for a while as a very young dog, as he became quite ill and lost loads of weight. Once well he needed reminding about weaves as he had had some time off training, but found the upright poles hurt his bare ribs! V-weaves reminded him of his footing and they came up as he regained his weight.

Asher's agility instructor chopped and changed from channel weaves - which I admit did seem to be working - to v-weaves. Then he raised them too quickly which resulted in some very high jumps! No amount of lowering the height and raising them ever more slowly did the trick so I went back to standard push and pull.

I think both my boys have good weaves - Asher VERY fast - and both have learnt to do them independantly of me. So long as I don't get in the way, they get some amazing entries!