Figuring It Out

Now that we have finally been having some nicer weather, and the snow has melted, I have been able to get out in the yard to practice weave poles with Maggie.  Bosley always comes along and he tries to do the weave poles too.  He knows those poles have something to do with getting cookies and play time.  So, to keep him happy, I have been working on the weave entrances with him.  It has been a couple months since his last agility class, and he just started on the weaves in our last session.  We used the gate method, but Bosley got spooked by the gates falling over and making noise, so he avoided the weaves for the last few classes.  Out in the yard I just wanted to work on getting him comfortable in the weaves and work on his entrances. Well, Bosley had other plans.  His entrances were getting more consistent, and I would always reward after the first two poles.  Bosley took the next step himself, and added the third and fourth pole on his own.  So I started rewarding after the fourth pole.  Now he is starting to add the fifth and sixth pole.  I mostly let him figure it out on his own, but sometimes encourage him along by leaning into him a bit to get him to go in those last two poles.  He is really catching on.  He is still not very consistent, but his entrances getting much better but he sometimes skips a middle pole.  Here is a short video of what we were doing in the yard today.  The video of him weaving away from the camera is so funny - his front gets out of the weaves about 3 poles before his butt does.  My favorite part of the video is the very last shot of him.  I am walking away on the offside of the weaves and Bosley goes out of his way to get the weave entrance.  I didn't realize he did that until I watched the video later.  Now I need to start working on the offside more.