Wall-e's weaves

About an hour ago this morning, I hammered 6 nails in the ground and put 6 weave poles over them in a channel. This is what we used to begin Wall-e's official weave training. (He's been learning them at class too, but we haven't been training them at home until today.) The channel is spread 16" apart so he can gallop through it easily without being slowed down by the poles. When the channel is completely closed, the poles will have 22" spacing between them. There are only 6 poles right now (yes, I admit, because I was too lazy to put the other 6 in!...) but later this week I'll nail the other 6 poles in to make 12. I'll likely move the channel closer an inch closer later this week too. I'm still debating about whether or not I should put guide wires on...I'm leaning towards no, because I don't think he really needs them. I can always add them after if he has any problems with popping out.

So, about our training today...we did 5 reps, with Wall-e getting perfect each time and racing through the channel! Each rep, I put him in a sit-stay, and I lead out to the opposite end of the poles, kneeling on the grass as I said "Okay!" to get the maximum speed. The first 3 reps, I threw the food tube as soon as he passed the last pole to make sure that he didn't pop out, but the last 2 reps, I threw it as he entered the channel for increased speed because I knew that he wouldn't likely pop out.

We'll try to have a weave training session every day until the channel is completely closed (which won't be for at least a couple months, because his growth plates probably aren't all closed.)

~Nat