Thursday, October 30, 2008

Weaving Update

The gray lines are where we currently have cages. The red dotted line is where I recently removed a cage.

Carmen is doing SUPER in every combination of position, except for one. The red line (see below - the red and green lines represent my general position). When I am on the left heading out towards the back of the yard – she does 1-3 and then attempts to skip to 5-6. She does not miss poles 4-5 in ANY other positional combination – no matter how fast or slow I am. I am treating her while weaving between 3 and 4 and trying not to lean into her while doing it!



Anyone have any thoughts on what sorts of unintentional cue I might be giving her or if you think it might be a visual thing – what it might be? For now I am going to continue to highly reward while weaving through that patch (and for weaving in general!) – also using the clicker. We’ll see how it goes. I noticed an immediate improvement last night when I realized there was an issue, stopped my forward motion and treated her while weaving. She is at the point where if I stop and wait she will stop but she doesn’t offer the weaving of poles 3-5 no matter how long I wait – which makes me wonder what I am missing!

5 comments:

Diana said...

Sorry , I dont have any suggestions. I have never used cages. I used WAM with Guiness and a something like that with Miley. ( stick in the ground weave polse that were angled). Both worked well and with in 6 weeks they were weaving on thir own. Diana

ann-and-partner said...

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed seeing the beautiful boys tonight. They are so well mannered and sooo happy! If I wasn't being "pulled" I would have tried to bribe them onto my lap where I would drool all over them!! Such pro's!

Jules said...

You are kind....the Bug was in rare form - being a snot to poor Partner! Rare that Bug will be growling at someone Ike is "cool" with. : )

it is probably because both Partner and Bug are wimps. ;D

Cat, Tessie, & Strata said...

Cut it down to six poles and go from there. If she's doing it with six poles that will answer some of your questions as well as allow you to reward more frequently.

You could also try slowing down the fading of the gate. Most people think of "fading the gates" as just taking one off. Instead, remove it from the PVC poles but drag it a few inches away, still in a "V" shape.

(You have now learned why I am not a big cage fan -- that's a lot of metal to fade!)

Jules said...

Thanks, Cat. That is what we've been doing. I think I mentioned it another post, but maybe not. We were between 1" and 3" away from the pole for a couple of weeks. I would switch methods with Carmie but at this point, where I find her to be so literal, I think it would end of being the same amount of work either which-way! Some dogs (like Ike) take to cages like a fish to water and then there's Carmie! I did realize the poles she is missing are taped orange going into blue so I wonder if it is a contrast thing, too.