Single-striding sheltie!?

Wall-e did a lot of weaves yesterday. We'd been working on them at around 12" on Thursday, and yesterday I pushed them to 10" and then decided to just move them in to 6" and see how he did. Wow, this dog is going to be a FAST weaver! He was moving through the channel so nicely. Watching the video in slow-motion, the first time through the channel he actually single-strided the last 3 poles. (At the beginning of the channel he just runs through, then at the very end he shows his weave style.) A single-striding 14"-high sheltie?!

I went on Google today and looked for some information on single-striding, as the smallest dogs I've seen single-striding is 17" BC's. I found a couple normal-sized shelties who single-stride. Hm. If Wall-e single-strides more today, I'll probably make the weave spacing 18" apart (instead of 22" like it is now) and see if that helps him single-stride. I want to encourage whatever style is more comfortable for him, and he hasn't really shown any hopping. Once he showed what looked a bit like hopping, but it wasn't really hopping. I'll see how he does as his weave training continues. No concerns at all though, his weaves are blazing fast right now! He did pop out twice but after giving no reward each time and just racing back to try again, he stayed in the poles and didn't pop for the next two reps, so I think he was getting it.

Crazy single-striding sheltie! Well, he does have a fairly long body, and maybe that's why he single-strided those last 3 poles. If he can single-stride on 22"-spaced poles, I'm sure he'd be able to single-stride the 18" - 20" poles at trials. Well, he only single-strided 3 poles, so I guess that doesn't mean much...but still. Let's see what happens...I'm excited!

(I'll post the weaving clips in a video I'll post tomorrow. I'll likely take some more today too.)

~Nat