Clean Run Magazine - September 2007 - 22

she was around ﬁve months old. That gave me seven months of reinforcing her contact position without doing the whole obstacle or releasing her to another obstacle. We have decided to do something different with my husband’s new pup on the A-frame. We teach speed over the top of the A-frame, and I don’t like having the dogs slam into a two-on/twooff position after leaping the top. Check back with me in a year and I can tell you how it went. As far as the weave poles, I like to teach entry ﬁrst. I have had success with using a set of three poles and ﬁnding entry from every angle and obstacle before I teach the full set of weaves. When I am using the set of three poles, I do not move my body. I throw my reinforcer (toy) to the end of the third pole and then I play. Once they are solid on ﬁnding entry without my motion, I start to move. Now, my body is not a distraction because they know their job so well. I usually start three-pole work around seven months of age. I don’t like to start training full sets of weaves until the dog is at least a year old. Like all of the obstacle training I do, I like to train the behavior ﬁrst and then add my motion. For teaching a full set of weaves, I have a helper hold my dog at the opening of a set of 12 channel weaves about 12" apart. I am standing at the end of the 12 and call my dog. I reinforce with a toy at the “invisible pole,” #13. I do not throw my toy to help keep my dog’s focus on the end behavior and to keep the dog from charging after the toy. I feel this helps eliminate the pop-out problem. It would take a whole article to write exactly how I teach weaves, but basically, I get them closed as fast as possible (within a week or two) and backchain my body movement all the way to pole #6. Once my dog can weave all 12 while I stand still at pole #6 and throw my reinforcer, I start to add my motion. At that point, they understand their job and my body movement is not a distraction. Since they know the entry so well, transitioning to doing all 12 weaves and ﬁnding the entry is not a problem. Since I teach independent obstacles, it is very important that at the same time I am teaching my dogs to pay attention to me handling-wise. I certainly cannot have them ignoring me when I am directing them on the course. AS: How do you know when your dog is ready to compete? LB: I like to train my dogs through the Masters level before I bring them out. With that being said, I certainly cannot get them exposed to everything that they would be getting by being entered in a trial. But I feel conﬁdent in my training that my dogs understand what I taught and do not need to worry about distraction or other dogs. I do some prooﬁng with having my other dogs loose running around while I am trying to run a sequence or proof obstacles. AS: What do you like the most about trialing? LB: I can’t wait to see what a judge has come up with for a course. When walking a course, I often hear people complaining about certain parts. I can’t wait to give that challenge a try. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. I always bring home something from a trial that I have not tried yet. Of course the other reason I love to trial is the social aspect. I have made many wonderful friends all over the country and overseas. AS: If you had a choice to trial or train, which would you choose? LB: Now that is a hard question. I love training my dogs. But at the same time I love to see if all the training has paid off for trialing. If I had to choose, I would choose training because part of my training program is hiking in the woods and swimming the dogs. If I could only do one, I could never give up seeing my dogs just be dogs running in the woods and swimming! D Amy Siegel, a retired IT professional, has three Aussies, Ray, Flirt, and Bodhi. She enjoys her dogs and agility in the Northeast. 22 Clean Run | September 07

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Clean Run Magazine - September 2007

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