Baby Dog Training

With all this talk about Zoe, I figured it was about time to highlight Breeze. Tonight was Breeze's first successful attempt at maneuvering 6 weave poles. I know this may sound silly, but it is a proud moment for an agility trainer. Now that Breeze is about a year old, I started weave training with her a couple of weeks ago. In class, we have been working entries, but not the weaving motion. I trained Zoe with weave-o-matics, which are basically poles that are angled, making a weave-like path. Since then, I've heard a lot about 2 by 2 training, which is setting up two poles and letting the dog learn the correct entry. The key to this method is shaping, where you let the dog decide and reward for the correct behavior. This teaches them a) how to enter correctly and b) instills drive for the weaves since it is their choice to perform the behavior.

So with Breeze, I started with two poles and as she quickly got the entry, I added two more. We practiced with four poles for 2 or 3 sessions and then tonight I added 2 more. I initially planned on angling the poles, but she seemed to get it just fine with them straight up. So now we'll just work on speed and accuracy and eventually adding more poles.

Breeze has proven to be a pretty die hard worker. When I have treats, her focus is 110%. Even with a toy it is fairly good. When people say border collies need a job to do, they are exactly right about her. She lives to work and sometimes it is difficult to find her a job to do. Zoe, on the other hand, would happily spend her time lounging on the couch. As much of a pain it can be, it's kind of nice having both kinds of personalities. It has really challenged me as a trainer because I need to handle both dogs very differently. Zoe needs a lot of motivation, and I need to emphasize control with Breeze.

We are going on about three months of agility with Breeze. She's sequencing about 5 or 6 obstacles now and seems to have no fear of the teeter. Her contacts are getting pretty solid and is starting to jump with a little height. I've been determined to take things slow with her because I know she will need some extra time to mature. Currently, she has two modes: overdrive and park. She's not a problem around other dogs, it's just that any little bit of praise excites her and she goes into hyper mode. This is where black eyes become a danger, lol. I also need to learn how to give her a break from working. Some dogs like to play in between and others just need a quiet mental break in the crate. If we learn how to work best as a team now, it will pay off later in the ring.

Now, here is Breeze weaving...look at her go!