2x2 Weave Training - Days Four & Five

Days Four & Five - Moving the Two Sets of 2x2s & Turning Back Time


In case anyone is wondering about Sunday by the way - we had a day off. We're were out and about on Sunday, so there wasn't going to be time to devote to Enya's training properly. I decided it was probably better to give her a day off. Certainly when your training something this intensely, i.e. 3 times a days, even if it is only for 5 mins each session, it does no harm at all to give your dog a break every so often. Just like people they will come back refreshed and with their enthusiasm levels topped up.

Sunday

Anyway Days Four & Five (Monday and Tuesday) - These are about moving the locations your training in about so your dog gets used to working in different locations. This we did most successfully. And they're about closing the gap between the two sets of 2x2s down from 8ft to 4ft, and changing the time from 2-8pm to 1-7pm - this will all make perfect sense if you're familiar with Susan Garrett's 2x2 training method. If you aren't, it will all seem really weird, but be assured I don't train my dog for 6 hours a day :-) Anyway, this was slightly less successful as we're not at 4ft just yet, currently we're working at about 5ft between the sets.

Monday (Day Four) we closed the gap, you can sort of get an idea of what happened if you read the previous blog entry on using No as a command.

Tuesday (Day Five) we could only do two sessions, morning and evening. Due to a re-arranged meeting, lunch was a very hurried affair with just time to walk the dogs and check the horses. The final session on Day Five was interesting because Enya was trying to hammer through the weaves at top speed and as a consequences she kept missing the entry on one or other of the two sets. Typically collie behaviour - "I must do everything at 120%". The misses were being caused because I was reducing the distance between the two sets, and the closer you get the more they have to dig in and turn to get the entries. I resisted the temptation to make it easier and instead used the toy to reward in-between the sets. This encourages her to dig in and to slow up just a bit. It's a bit of a balancing act, you want the speed but you also need them to have sufficient control to make it work.

Needless to say with this we have been working the arc, though I have to remind myself to do the easier entries as well as I have a tendency to try work high on the arc all the time. Challenging I know, but in reality most of her entries in competition are not going to be from there, they're more likely to be from straight on, especially in the lower grades. Now that would be a novelty - having to explain to people why you dog can get any entry from +/- 90degrees but misses the easier entries, LOL!

So, very successful with good progress and we're going to be starting Day Six with the 2x2 sets about 5ft apart and 1-7pm