Mr. Cash is now a weaving fool!
This was his very first set of 12 closed poles :)
I started the official weave training on August 12. And on August 29, Cash was weaving 12 closed poles with nice footwork! 17 days may not be impressive to the "professionals" who manage to train poles in one week, but for me, its huge! Jesse took several months to figure out the poles and Sophie and I spent over a year butting heads on this skill - and still butt heads to this day over the poles!
I trained the poles a bit different with Cash. With the girls I kept the poles totally isolated from all other things in the agility world. This created trouble when it was time to add the poles to a sequence. So for Cash, I started adding 'stuff' to the poles from day one. As soon as he realized his job was to go through the channel, I added jumps, contacts, tunnels, front crosses, rear crosses and distance to the poles. Cash accepted all of these challenges and continued to do his job - go through the channel. I gradually closed the poles - a 1/2 inch or so a day - but EVERY day, the poles closed. It was really interesting to watch him learn to collect as he entered the poles - regardless of how far open they were - because of the previous obstacle. Collection is something that causes Sophie and I trouble - so its very cool to see him getting it at this early stage of training.
What's more exciting to me than the time in which he learned this tricky skill is the attitude he brings to training it! When I release him into the agility yard, he runs straight to the poles and offers them on his own! He appears to enjoy this obstacle and really tries his hardest!
and yes - I'm training him in a skirt... I had a willing videographer and didn't want to miss the opportunity to tape this monumental day!
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