Weaves: Day 1

I am very pleased with how day 1 went.  First, she was happy to be in our pole barn.  Sounds simple but she hasn't been in there much and Roxy didn't love the building and I think it was Shimmer that really didn't.  Or maybe Tori.  Whatever, Shasta was happy in there.

As I have with Roxy and Sonic, I am using my own weave system.  I use a set of four channel weaves and teach pretty much everything on that before going to 8 and 12 weaves.  I set the four out with the poles spread about 10-12 inches, where Shasta could easily go down the middle without them hitting her.  She went straight down the middle first try, no guiding.  Good deal.

I then brought the weaves in some, still going down channel easy, no guiding.  I brought it in to the point where the width of the channel was about the same as Shasta.  She didn't need to weave any but did need to have poles touch her some.  Still, no issue.  Alright, this is cool.

I brought them in a tiny bit more so she actually had to weave a little.  First time, did it perfect.  Really?  What a dog.  But then she ran by the next few times.  OK, that makes more sense.  So we tried some more with hit and miss success, I guided a couple of times.  When I was done with session 1 she was doing it really well with some distance on my left side, struggling with the "wrap" entry.

Oops, that's not right

Went down for session 2 in the late afternoon.  She did at least as well if not a little better.  I brought the weaves in a tiny bit more, maybe down to a 4-5" gap and she took a tiny step back.  Again, tried with hit and miss success.  Guided a few times.  I guided to get some success back when she knew she was confused and decided easiest was to run by.  Never guided more than once in a row.

By the end of session two, she was awesome with one of the four entries.  When she was on my left going from the door side to the other side of barn, she was awesome entering from any distance and somewhat tough angles.  Left sided toward the door I needed to set her up straight.  Right sided either way she didn't understand how to enter.

It's right but take it easy girl

One thing I really like seeing was when she didn't know what to do to be right, she would run by rather than enter but then would go stand in the poles.  Showing me that she was comfortable in the poles and wanted to be right, just didn't know how.

There we go!

I think this is the spacing of the weaves I want to work with.  I think we can improve without bringing them farther apart.  And I think it's at this spacing that I will wait until I have all four entries from any distance and almost any angle.

I am very happy with day one.