Ermagherd Weave Poles!

So, as y'all know, Ember turned a year old last Monday, November 26th. Being as she was now of appropriate age, and looking pretty physically mature, I decided to start her on weave pole training. Because it's what I have, and I've had good success with the method in the past, I decided to train her with Susan Garrett's 2x2 method. I like 2x2s because the method is more adaptable than channel weaves, and the dog always weaves with straight poles, unlike weave-a-matic.

Plus, I have a pretty short attention span, and this method generally gets really rapid results :P

I didn't train Susan Garrett's exact program letter for letter, but the steps I followed were pretty close. And I guess it worked, because Ember went from the bare-bones basics (one 2x2 "gate") to weaving twelve poles (both on and off sides) in FIVE DAYS. 

Ember picked up on what I was asking pretty quickly. Within a day or two she could do two sets of 2x2s (four poles) about a foot apart, spaced like real weave poles. But then we got STUCK. She could not progress past that point, and was starting to get stressed and discouraged a little bit. So I kept making it easier for her, then trying to make it harder again to help build her confidence. But we still weren't quite getting it. Then, I asked my good friend/mentor/instructor, Mary, for advice. She made a few suggestions, including slanting the second gate to make it a bit easier to find. I went out and tried it, and like magic, the lightbulb went on. Within a few sessions, Ember could weave four poles pretty well, from a variety of entries. 

After that, it was a pretty quick progression to six poles...

Then two sets of six, placed 10 feet, then 6 feet, then 3 feet apart...

Until I decided to say "screw it!" and put the two sets together and see what happened! 

The biggest thing I learned from this process is that I need to trust Ember more and allow her to make, and learn from, mistakes. I think I was causing a big part of our plateau earlier in the week by being too worried about her "failing" too much. This epiphany (lol) came to me when I finally decided to try her on 12 poles. The first two times I sent her through them, she weaved the first six, skipped the seventh, and weaved the rest of the way. I'm pretty sure she was just remembering the rhythm she'd set with the poles 3 feet apart. I made a conscious effort to stay upbeat and tell her she was a good girl for trying, because she was doing a good job, thinking really hard, and it was obvious she was trying to figure out what to do. The third time, she weaved all twelve poles perfectly. We had a huge party and Ember was really excited and happy :P She then did the poles again perfectly a few more times, both on and off side. 

I've worked Ember a few more times on poles since then, and she has made some mistakes, but has overwhelmingly been perfect :) Since she is still developing muscle memory and all that, she has to think really hard while weaving. It's really funny.... you can almost see the thought bubble over her head: "ok, I have to weave. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, TOY!" She is a decently fast weaver right now, with good rhythm through the poles. But I anticipate that she will get much faster as she gains confidence and muscle memory. 

Next, I'm going to start adding a jump in at the end, then the beginning of the poles. Then I will start pressing for speed, even harder entries, and encouraging independence from my position... something I've struggled with and worked really hard on with Cedar.  

I'm so ridiculously proud of Ember, though! What a good baby dog <3 p="p">