Yesterday Cherry went to 12 poles, I am following Susan Garretts 2x2 dvd, so I stuck 6 weaves and then a space and had 6 more. I sent Cherry through the last 6, and rewarded a couple of times, then sent her through the first 6 rewarded and then put her through the next 6 and rewarded. Susan says it is important to reward after the first 6 because if the dog has a problem in the second six you can not reward or they will be confused and yet...they will not know they did great in the first six, just a way to keep the rate of reinforcement up for the dog and a way to let them know precisely where the problem is if there are any. Anyway, we zipped through that step, and moved the poles closer, and wha laaa 12 weaves, very nicely with her head down and a nice speed. The only thing is I notice I do have to give her some nicer entries because the different poles, the different bases, the different number and the break in the two sets of poles all are giving her something to think about, so I am sticking to some nicer weave entries for the next few days.
Today I noticed at the first session it almost looked like Cherry wanted to hop through the poles. She was still moving fast and driving nice, but I decided to try how Susan suggested to very, very slightly open the poles. I put out my channels -I used her string and spike method of establishing the opening, but I thought that was easier to do with the channels then to mess with the 2x2's, and then on the second session she was sort of figuring out how to move and the third session of the day there is a beautiful swimming type stride. VERY exciting to watch that all developing. Sort of like watching your child learning to walk, you know they all do it eventually but so much fun to just see it happening and seems so amazing at the time. My third session was done as I was racing out the door, and so I didnt set up the video, besides it was almost dark, so I will post a video tomorrow.
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