Weaves for beginner

[hrcarol]

Shelties are pretty smart dogs so I doubt a "different set of poles" will make a difference to him. Honestly, if dogs had such a hard time with different poles or striping it would make trialing near impossible to Q because you may not see the exact same 'look' on the poles a different trials. You want the dog to be exposed to different 'looks' so they learn they have to perform regardless of what it 'looks' like.

This is what I was thinking too. I think the instructor's dogs aren't as smart as Shelties. There's another Sheltie in class and she commented last week about how smart both are.

 

[corbinam]

This is what I was thinking too. I think the instructor's dogs aren't as smart as Shelties. There's another Sheltie in class and she commented last week about how smart both are.

She may have been thinking of something that happens a bit farther down the line. I've found that when the dog first learns to weave there may be a bit of a learning curve on the first set that they see away from the set they learned on. For example, I was able to teach the dogs to weave on a set of poles in our yard that were channel weaves, but we took a couple steps back once we went to the "real" poles at our agility field.

 

[Hurtseverywhere]

MY Dogs have never had a problem adjusting to different pole striping, now switching between the old 22" ones we have at the practice club and the new 24" ones I use at home and at the trials is another matter. but they usually adjust after one or 2 run through's.