3D Dog Training LLC

Ok so the weather has changed drastically and training outside is not an option today. We are supposed to have class in Barto this morning but I am not sure if the roads will allow us to train. I am going to try to make it down and hopefully some other people will show up. I am only taking Disco since it is very slippery outside and Dixie could use a few days rest after a long weekend of trialing and tracking training.
The drive down to Barto was not bad the only icy areas were in my driveway and the hill going up the driveway at Barto. Only one other person showed up. It was kind of nice because that means I will get to work Disco on the turf and other equipment. I did some sequencing with him and he really has improved from three weeks ago at the trial when he was just running around things. He is staying with me and committing to the equipment much easier. I warmed him up on a set of 6 2 X 2’s on the mats going back to some cookies as a reward. Then we went out on the turf to work our weaves with jumps. I worked the whole arc with six poles. He is now getting the offside entry that he struggled with yesterday but is having problems with the same approach from the other side…pulling up short and entering at pole three. It takes a couple of minutes but he does work threw it. At this point I decide it is time to try rolling sixes (two sets of six separated by 15’. So I drop the jumps out at first. We do the second set first just so he knows what is coming. Then we go back to the first set and reward in between. Once he seems ready we do both sets rewarding after the second. He does not have much trouble adjusting to two sets. He does pop out a couple times but I just give him his “opps” and do them again. In no time he is working the arc with the jumps doing the two sets. We call it quits on weaves there and go back to some other sequencing work before heading off to lunch.

Hi,
It is Tuesday January 6th and Disco has now had 5 training session on weaves lasting no more than 10 to 12 minutes of actual weave pole training. Today we are going to train outside here at home. We will start with four poles set up just like a trial and I will be adding a jump. So now Disco will really have to start thinking about collecting as he enters the poles. As always we will work him from all around the entry arc moving the jump as we go. I will also try to add in some front crosses. I will be using a toy as his reward as we will be in the grass. If he is successful with the 4 poles than maybe I will try him with 6 at the end of our training session.
Like in previous session I start pretty much where we left of last time. First we warm up with a friendly game of tug and then working the poles a couple of times without the jump. I am also continuing to bribe him to bring the toy back but he is getting better at it. The four poles do not seem to be giving him any problems. I add the jump starting on side at a 90 degree angle to the entry. This does not seem to faze Disco at all. He works all of the entry points onside without any issues. He struggles a couples times on the off side weaves when he has to go all the way up and find the entry form 180 degrees. But it is very kewl to see him continue to try and not stress over making a mistake. After a few errors he does start finding that entry as well. I was able to add in a front cross with issues and an exit side front as well, which means he is staying in the poles as I move ahead to make the cross. Staying in the poles has not been real hard just finding some of those entries made him really think. At the end of the session I did move to six regular poles and he had no problem with the added poles. This is only his six training session and he is doing six poles fairly well with some really ugly approaches. He is also starting to really get pumped up when we head out for our training time. I am hoping the weather will continue to hold and I will be able to complete the basic weave training with him in time for him to show off some really awesome improvement at our DOCNA trial on the 17th of January.

Monday morning is my tracking class time but I decided to throw Disco and the weaves in the car just in case we had time to do some weaves during tracking. It worked out nicely as in the middle of our tracking stuff (moving from one place to another) I ended up with a dead battery and had to wait a few minutes for someone to come back with jumper cables and that proved to be just the time I needed to do some work with Disco. Nothing new, in fact I went back to 2 poles since he would be working in grass and I would not be able to toss treats as they would get lost in the grass. So this was a good time to see if he would bring back a toy. He did very nicely except that I had to trade the toy for a treat when he brought it back. I was very pleased that he worked the poles well and stayed with me. Training lasted less than two minutes as my rescuer showed up with cables and we went back to tracking class. I will take Disco down to Barto for my Monday evening agility classes and work him on four poles there.
Well I headed to Barto early so I could work Disco on his poles before any of my students arrived. Unfortunately there were several people that arrived early. But since I had time and Disco was staying focused on me we did get the poles out and do our training for the evening. I started with 4 poles straight up with about 7’ between the two sets like I had at the hotel on Saturday. Disco did fine with all points on the arc with this set up being rewarded between the sets sometimes and after the second set other times. I also continued mixing between throwing a cookie and having him go after the toy. After working the arc I went ahead and moved the poles together and worked the arc with 4 competition style poles. I am also now moving with him as he does poles. I am beginning to move ahead of him and way from the poles as he is weaving. I have not started doing any crosses yet but will soon. He does struggle a little with the off side entry if I move to early so we will have to continue to work on that, but it is very impressive to see him finding some very tough entries and actually weaving the poles without me yanking him in and out or making him stop to find the poles.
Once class started I did work with several of the beginner dogs getting them started on 2 X 2’s. I am hoping this system will help them not only in learning weaves but in developing some teamwork and focus on their dogs.

So we had a successful first day of training with the 2 X 2 weaves. If it was nice outside and I had time we could be doing 2 or 3 short training sessions a day, but for now that just is not possible. Remember that in each training set you only work the dog for a couple of minutes. It could very well take you longer to get everything out, set up and warm up the dog than doing the actual weave training. That is not to say that you could not do some other things with the dog as well but the formal training needs to remain very short. For today I will be staying at just two poles and working the arc inside the hotel room. If things go very well maybe I will venture outside into the cold parking lot for a second training set before dark. The trial format here in Erie is very works well for training a second dog. They run all the excellent level classes first so we are done with the trial and back at the hotel at just a little after 11 am. I got to take both dogs on a nice walk and Dixie has settled down for a nap.
Disco was very excited as soon as he saw me get the poles out. We played a short game of tug to get him focused on me and then when right into working the arc around the two poles. He picked right up form yesterday and is quickly offering me the poles as soon as I get him back in place. There is not much room inside here to do handling moves to get him back but that is fine for today. We worked our couple of minutes and then did some retrieving inside. He is pretty good about bringing things back to me inside but not so much outside. He will have to get better at that for our more advance training outside. I decided I would call for an early dinner delivery and then take him outside and see how he does with a second set of poles.
Now outside I managed to find a nice clear and quiet spot in the hotel parking lot. I start him with one set of poles, rotating them to the proper 2-8 angle as he does them just a couple of times. I then added the second set of 2 poles about 15’ from the first set. After rewarding him after the first set (between the two sets) once from each side I then let him do both sets. He very quickly moves ahead of me to do both sets. We work both side of the arc without and problems. I moved the poles slowly back to straight and about 7 feet apart. Disco has no problems with this set up. We play a little extra tug at the end of the training session while I pack the poles back into the SUV for the trip home tomorrow, there will be no training since we will leave from the trial site for home and arrive home after dark. Disco and I went on a short walk to end to celebrate his good work.

I have watched the first DVD a couple of times now so I have a good idea of the overall plan. I want to share just a few things about this training method for the weaves before we start so you can follow along. I would also suggest that anyone that is starting a dog in agility training or un-happy with your current dogs’ weaves you should really invest in this DVD. It is very well done and I am very excited to try it with one of my dogs. It is worth every penny you spend on it, even if it just gives you ideas of challenges to set up for your dog with your current training system it would be worth the price. I can tell you I forgot just how much I challenged Dixie when I was working her weaves and in fact all her beginning training. This DVD reminded me of all those things I had worked on with her and failed to do with Drifter.
First this system moves very quickly, you really can have a dog weaving in just a matter of a couple of weeks instead of six months to a year. Before training you are also playing tug with the dog or doing some other activity to engage the dog and pump them up and you continue to do so between attempts. The whole process needs to be fun and exciting for the dog. You do not spend a lot of time at any level of training, once the dog is offering you the behavior at one level you quickly move on and challenge the dog for more. If the dog makes a mistake you simply ignore it and try again rewarding them for getting it right. This helps building the dog’s’ confidence and willingness to try without shutting down when getting things wrong. It also creates a dog that really enjoys working things out and is highly motivated. You also are teaching the dog to weave from some pretty incredible angles all around the arc, with distractions and at speed so once you have done your initial training you really have a dog with a great understanding of weaves. Even after your dog is doing awesome weaves you have a whole DVD of advance exercises and training ideas to help continue to challenge and improve your dogs’ performance on the second DVD.
Ok, so Erie is very cold and there is snow on the ground in January so our weave training will be limited to what I can do inside my hotel room. There is not a lot of room in here but I think we can at least get him to learn to offer the pole entry from all points on the working arc according to Chapter 1 of the training DVD. These first couple of training session could be very frustrating for both Disco and me. He has not been “Free Shaped” much and does not really know to try to offer me things to get his cookie and I am not use to waiting for him to do so, but we are going to try our best to get through this without luring him. This first step sounds easy enough. You bring the dog to the weaves at a right angle to the entry and wait for them to engage the poles. The first time it may be something as simple as looking at them, but you really want the dog to walk into the entry. Once they do you throw a cookie to your reward spot/line. Once they get the idea you move further away from the poles so the dog has to leave you and the cookies to go engage the entry and you continue to throw the treat to the reward spot. Then you begin working the arc around the poles until the dog figures out the entry from everywhere. Training sessions are supposed to be kept very short, no more than a couple of minutes. So here it goes:
It did take a couple of minutes for Disco to actually get up and go into the pole entry and he was very excited when I tossed the cookie out. He quickly came back and tried it again. In no time he was offering me the correct entry as I moved further away from the poles and changed my angle. Even going to the off side it only took him a few seconds and one wrong try to figure out to go around the pole and enter the correct way. We trained for only a couple minutes and most of that time was actually spent playing between attempts.

To anyone who saw Disco making his Docna trial debut on December 12-14 and December 27-29 2008 it was very apparent that he has no clue what weave poles are at this time. I had to stop him, walk backwards and push him in and out of the weaves. So teaching him weave poles has become my first training goal. The really cool thing is that Susan Garrett has just released her new 2X2 12 poles in 12 Days DVD and I have decided to try to give this system a try. Part of the basis of this system is “Free Shaping” the behaviors, something I have not done with Disco at all. So I am hoping this training will serve multiple purposes. I am hoping that along with teaching the weaves Disco will learn how to learn and offer behaviors and develop a better work ethic and bond with me. So at this point I have the DVD and have my borrowed some 2 X 2 weaves, until mine arrive in a week or so. I am on the road this weekend to Show Dixie in Agility in Erie, Pa. I am taking Disco and my weaves with me in hopes of starting his training while there.