OK, well I've decided to teach leg weaving for a bit of light entertainment, so I might as well post it as a challenge to document it, and anyone who fancies can join in, too This is our second lesson. We started yesterday with luring through the legs, very quickly faded the lure, because these are dogs who understand following a "fake" lure, targeting my fingers. I'm trying to fade that, too, as you see in these videos, and working towards, firstly, the exaggerated step being enough, and, later, I'll put the weave on a verbal cue, with a far smaller step - or even with no step at all, so they weave in place. You'll also see I'm working on what the Training Academy calls "boundary games". That is, the two dogs that aren't working staying within a boundary - in this case, their raised beds. In general, they are brilliant at this, but Squidge can't contain herself when it gets exciting - the tug toy is a new one that is her favourite - it takes treats inside it, which is mind-blowing Anyway, here goes with the videos: Willow is really quite hesitant. She's unsure of going between my legs, which is fine for now; working on this and rewarding her well will build her confidence. Anything to increase her confidence is a good thing, and, as much as it might put her outside of her comfort zone in the short term, I think it's an achievable enough challenge to warrant it, and will help her long-term. Luna is confidence personified. She loves learning new games, and she's always loved going between my - or anyone's - legs. She absolutely adores the "middle" game, and will walk along between my legs until the cows come home, just for the fun of it. So, you'll see she reverts to this a couple of times. That's fine, weaving is similar enough to understand the confusion, so she gets a fuss for trying, but no treat because it's not quite what I'm after. She is so confident that I don't have to worry about this having a negative impact on her. She thrives more on a challenge and getting it right than if I were to aim for errorless learning, which she can find quite boring. I realise it kinda looks like I'm beating her up towards the end when she does "middle" for the third time. I'm actually just pushing her around, which she loves Shadow, my little pocket rocket is a "doer", not a "thinker". He is back from holiday with a bang, desperate to get back into training and throwing himself into everything I ask him at Mach 10. It took a while in yesterday's first session to get his brain in gear to follow the lure, rather than throwing every behaviour he had at me. He is so much fun to train.
Hehe I couldn't stop watching Shadow's tail! How he manages to continue working with that thing wagging at full speed! This looks like really good fun. I think Ella's going to love it
Fun! Thanks for the great videos! Weaves were Brogan's favourite part of our doggie dancing routine. He would still happily do them even when he was an old man. For me it was also a fun way to build up the skills that came in so handy while he was working. If your dog can learn to watch you closely and react quickly for this type of tight footwork, it then helps with other fancy footwork such as keeping a tight heel while stepping around store displays or picking your way through a thick crowd of people. In other words, a "bit of fun" that is in fact incredibly useful if you have your dog out in public environments. So keep on "cha cha cha-ing"!
Lovely to watch, gosh Squidge/Luna has grown! My one Lab can do this but the young one (five years old!) gets over excited and then frazzles his brain!
Oh we can do a few of these, about 5 moving forward then he loses it and goes round the back of me. Also only very, very, slowly likes he's a tanker which can only turn around very sedately We are away for a few days in a cottage with a great big garden so I'll try and get a video. Feels easier than the food bowl challenge, that was flipping difficult at times
Red can chair leg weave so today we tried the leg weave. Must have a go at videoing as she can do this. She can also do last month's challenge so will try to video that too.
I gave it a try yesterday, wish I'd have got it on video. Ella was super excited and throwing lots of behaviours at me. I stepped one leg out, positioned the lure and she lept straight over my leg instead of going under!
Not only fun, but also useful for stretching prior to agility or long retrieves in the field. I do figure-8s using a bumper between my legs with my labs as the end of their warm up routine to try to prevent injuries. They have fun and I'm trying to stretch those muscles to prevent injury. For a vet's explanation see 6:55 of this video:
