The Weave Pole DanceThe Weave Pole DanceOkay, your dog already knows the poles and you think you don't need to read any further. . . . But, if you have the time, process through this method and see if it might help improve the performance of your trained dog.
The first time I saw this method, Chris Bolton was helping a dog weave at a seminar. The dog had been started on wires, but was not ready for them to be removed. Chris simply took hold of the dog's collar and guided him very quickly through the poles. After some practice on the handler's part, the dog really seemed to pick it up. Before the weekend was over, this dog and a few others were really weaving! I wasn't convinced. I was using the "modern" wire technique. My newest dogs were willing to weave from both sides, with me at a great distance, and they were hitting all sorts of hard angled entries.
Winston (1 year-old Borderwart) was ready to start weave training and, after some thought, I decided to try the method with a fair amount of skepticism. He would be my test dog. Jim was out of town, and I had time to obsess on my project. Three times a day I took Winston and some cookies out to the front yard. Before Jim came back ten days later, I had taught Winston to weave. Right side, left side, coming to me, and going away form me, Okay, I was convinced. It worked. And the best lesson that I learned was that it isn't really important which technique you use to teach the dogs to weave (as long as it uses motivation, encourages speed and enthusiasm, and emphasizes style), it is what you do AFTER you have taught the poles that matters most.
For the next year, while tinkering with this method, I primarily taught it to handlers whose dogs had problems. It has turned out to be great for dogs who make errors in the poles, or who simply need extra help after coming off the wires. It is also one of the best ways to speed up an average dog's performance that I have ever found. This year we switched to this method as our primary way to teach the poles in our classes. Enough said.
Over the years I have used a variety of techniques to teach the weaves. With my old technique for Beginner students, we used weaving "cages", consisting of four X-pens surrounding a set of twelve poles, for the first six weeks. The dogs learned quickly to run down the channel and everyone felt successful. The first Intermediate class we introduced the dog to a double set of wires. By the end of that session, twelve weeks total training, the dogs were using single wires on a closed line of poles. Our goal was to wean them from the wires by the eighteenth week of class. We did take off the wires eventually, but only the dogs whose handlers had figured out how to practice at home with makeshift wires actually had the dogs weaving.
The way we teach now is simple and requires no expensive equipment. Almost all of the dogs are reliably weaving six poles at the end of the Beginners class. At the Intermediate level they can now complete a set of twelve poles. We give them a way to practice at home that is exactly how we teach in class. With our old system, that wasn't possible. The students have a clear understanding of the weaves, and they are motivating the dog for speed and accuracy from day one.
I asked Chris Bolton why, when it seemed all of England taught weaves with wires, she didn't. She answered that she had observed her students becoming lazy and ineffective at helping the dog with entries, reliability, and speed. The basic premise of this training is that you don't make the dog do all the work. There are many ways of teaching the dogs to perform the weaves successfully. While we show our students how to train with this technique, it isn't necessary for them to use this one method. What is important is that they practice and have an understanding of the end goal. Many of them own a set of wires and will teach each new dog with them. I almost always suggest that owners of toy dogs spend some time with their dog on a set of wires, because the tinier the dog the harder it is to teach the little dog to look forward and not up at the handler. Many of our students now are experimenting with using the clicker for the poles. These systems all work, but one of the reasons I have gone from wires to this method for my own dogs and many of my students' dogs is that it teaches the handler to participate.
You will be both guiding and luring your dog through the weaves poles:
You will be stepping in to guide your dog in to the correct pole and then stepping away to open a channel for him to move through.
This training is easiest performed with poles 30 inches or less in height. If your poles are taller than this, cut yourself a new set of short training poles. The hand holding the dog needs to follow the dog's path through the poles. This is very difficult to do with tall weave poles. I have seen 18 inch or shorter poles successfully used for tiny dogs, but the smaller the dog, the more difficult this method will be to use. You need to put your outside hand (luring hand) down at the dog's nose level, encouraging the dog to drive forward through the poles as fast as possible. The most effective handler body position for an average-sized dog is a low body posture, with the dog looking forward to the next pole not up at the handler. If your dog is large enough to "one foot it" (one foot on either side of the poles when weaving , not two) that is the ideal.
To facilitate our students having the equipment to practice on, we provide white step-in plastic fence poles for our students to purchase. They are available from Jeffers' Farm Supply Catalog (1-800-Jeffers) under the name DARE step-in posts. They cost about $1.50 apiece and come in both black and white. They can easily be cut down to whatever size you want to teach this method.
If you have a giant breed or a dog that has difficulty bending, and you are using push-in-the-ground poles, use only three poles to start. Offset the middle pole until you teach your dog how to bend. Add one new pole at a time until you achieve the desired performance.
Even though you are initially teaching the dog to follow your hand, you will eventually wean the dog from relying on your hand signal and only use the signal to speed up or help your dog through the poles. The signal of your outside hand moving through the plane of the poles will easily be shortened to almost a flick of your hand, which does not go through the plane of the poles, as you stay a half pole ahead of the dog.
I use a high-pitched Poles! Poles! or I "trill" a continuous high-pitched sound through the set of weaves. No one will ever call me a minimalist handler. I try to help my dogs every step of the way through the poles. My excitement and high-pitched voice along with a hand signal or hand clapping, help to drive the dog forward as quickly as possible through the poles. Moral: If you want a better performance from you dog, give a better performance yourself!
Put a flat buckle collar on your dog. If you have a medium-sized dog, put your hand in your dog's collar or use a short tab. If your dog is uncomfortable or nervous with your hand in his collar, use a leash instead. Be sure to keep the leash very short and hold it close to the dog's neck.
These directions are for starting training with the dog on your left side (on-side poles), but you may reverse them if you like and begin with right-sided (off-side) poles. The footwork and handwork are as important as the dog being guided through the poles. You'll be practicing the old fashioned "weave pole dance". The left foot comes in and snugs up to pole number two, then steps out to allow space for the dog to step through, then snugs up with the fourth pole, and so on and so on, every other pole. Figures 1 through 4 illustrate the footwork and handwork for both on-side and off-side weaves.
Put something that your dog is wild about in your right hand. No kibble training allowed here. Bring out the Rollover, cheese, prime rib, or your dog's favorite toy. Move your right hand (outside hand) in and out just in from of pole two, four, six, eight, and so on. Do not move your hand around the poles in the dog's path. It would be difficult to wean your dog from this signal. Your hand brushes in front of every other pole, teasing the dog forward with the goodie in your hand. If your hand isn't close enough to the pole, the dog will follow your hand into the wrong slot.
Your left hand guides the dog away from you and your right hand lures him toward you. Your hand and foot move in unison back and forth. Be careful not to drag your dog through the poles. Your left hand guides the dog with his collar, a tab, or a short leash. Practice first without your dog as shown above in Figure 5.
If you have an experienced weave pole dog, use him to learn the technique, instead of struggling with your novice dog. Start with only three or four poles, or at most six poles Gather your leash or tab into your left hand or put your hand in the dog's collar. Guide the dog through the first opening with the dog's left shoulder next to pole one as shown above in Figure 6.
Tease him forward with the toy or cookie. Keep your feet moving. When doing on-side poles, if you are performing the handwork correctly, your right hand will finish up just beyond the fourth pole as shown above in Figure 7.
A good reason to start with only four poles is that it will take awhile for the handler to get this all together: brain, feet, dog, hands and toy/goodie. If your poles can't be broken into short sets, or if you want to use a set of six poles, just don't complete the set. Do a weave in and out, and then reward the dog. Don't be greedy. If you perfect four poles the first week and add a couple poles a week, in five weeks you will have a weaving dog.
Be sure to train both sides of the poles from day one! When first trying off-side poles, practice without the dog again. On the off-side, your foot and handwork will start with pole one rather than pole two and then you'll be working the odd poles: three, five, seven, and so on.
Once the dog is starting to catch on, try dropping the tab or the collar as soon as you have the dog loaded in the poles. My experience with our dogs has been that for a few days you have to teach this behavior as if the dog had never seen a set of weave poles. Eventually, after a couple practices in the beginning of a training session, you will be able to let go of the dog. Keep your lure hand and footwork going, though, the whole time. The day will come that as you begin to show the dog his job, he will simply pull away from you and do the poles on his own.
Once you have got the semblance of an idea of weaving into your dog's brain., begin the poles from a different place each time. Start with the dog five feet back and in a straight line toward the poles. Then start from a right angle, then from the right side with a wrap entry, and so on. Give your weave command before you get to the poles. You want the dog looking forward and trying to find the entry. Don't begin each set of poles with the dog's nose lined up in the poles. Practice different entries while the dog is still being held and you can ensure your dog will get them.
Chris and Jeff Bolton taught us this method using a set of twelve poles with very similar handwork and footwork. As with any training technique though, once used for a few years, it changes shape a bit. At Power Paws, we start with fewer poles, but the basic gist of the Bolton's format for teaching poles has been described as they normally use it. Any discrepancies are mine.
Once you have taught your dog to weave, remember these basic rules:
Don't make a big deal about mistakes in practice or competition. Simply take your dog back and start again. if he comes out of the poles in practice, put your hand in the collar, help him do the full set of poles once, then try again without a helping hand.
Nancy Gyes operates Foothill Dog Training and Power Paws Agility with Jim Basic in San Jose, California. Nancy and her Border Collie Scud were chosen to represent the AKC and the U.S. at both the 1996 and 1997 Agility World Championships. She has trained Scud (BC) Winston (BC cross) and Toast (mini mixed breed) to their USDAA Agility Dog Championships and has put MAD titles on four dogs.
The Weave Pole Dance by Nancy
Gyes was originally published
in Clean Run, April 1998
and has been reprinted with the permission of:
Clean Run Productions
35 Walnut Street Turners Falls, MA 01376-2317
Phone: 1-800-311-6503 24-Hour Fax: 413-863-8303
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http://www.cleanrun.com/
Clean Run Productions publishes the Clean Run magazine along with an assortment of agility-related books.
