Weave Poles - One Step

[sheena]

My dog does a fairly consistent, moderately paced, weave pole performance & hardly ever mucks them up in training. She sort of skips through them. I try all different ways to get her to miss them, but she enters well & sticks to it. However in a trial situation, she is not so reliable & will sometimes miss an entry or pull out towards the end.

I have given her a bit of training using Susan Garetts 2 x 2 system, where she trains the one step with off-set poles. I havn't continued with it as my instructor advised me not to change her style. I think when they do the one step weaving, they are less likely to pull out as they get into a rythme. Does any one else have an opinion on this.....should I keep going the way we are or teach her the one-step.

[sheena]

Seemed I've stumped all you agility people out there Hard to imagine that no one has an opinion on the subject. Has no body ever tried to change their dog's style of weaving

[Vickie]

I think dogs choose the method that suits their body best & I never try to interfere with it unless they are doing weird things like crossing their feet.

I have one double foot dog & one single foot dog.

[poodlefan]

I read somewhere that dogs that double pump the weavers are faster than single steppers anyway.

I'd not attempt to change a style either. Reliability might suffer as a result.

[Staranais]

I read (somewhere!) that so long as the dog is consistently doing the same style the whole way through the weaves, you shouldn't try to change it. If the dog is skipping between different styles while weaving, then you might want to change it.

But I have no idea how you'd go about changing a dog's weaving style!

[Agility Dogs]

What Vickie and Staranais said.

As long as they are weaving nicely and driving forward with their head down I don't really care what they are doing with their feet as long as they are safe and comfortable.

There is a lot more time to be picked up on the course than even 1 second in the weavers.

Think about every step they take being .2 of a second. Tightening up turns is where most of our time just evaporates.

[sheena]

What Vickie and Staranais said.

As long as they are weaving nicely and driving forward with their head down I don't really care what they are doing with their feet as long as they are safe and comfortable.

There is a lot more time to be picked up on the course than even 1 second in the weavers.

Think about every step they take being .2 of a second. Tightening up turns is where most of our time just evaporates.

Yeah...she has a nice style, so I think I will stick to it. To stop her messing up in trial situations I think it will only come when she no longer gets distracted. At training, she is perfect even with the other dogs practicing alongside her.