Weaves

Really made some progress with the weaves today. I took them back to being about 3/4″ apart, and worked on entries first. We finished with a couple of 20ft run-ins, very pleased with that! Clean Run had a useful article in October that I’ve only just got around to reading, I’d never thought about doing long-distance weave entries.

I’ve been holding the width at about 2/3″ for about a month now, because Dylan has to do the actual weaving motion at that gap, but he can still see the channel. Today I decided to move them in about an inch, so it was perhaps 1″ apart. Big step! Luckily Dylan worked it nicely! He started off with a couple of pop-outs but once he’d adjusted his stride slightly he was fine. He really drives through; I’ve got some lovely V-poles now where he’s bent the base!

I’m learning a lot more about how he works too. He missed the entry completely a couple of times when he got his stride wrong, which is something Kim has never done. I think he’s finding it hard to collect his stride sometimes, which means it’s back to doing some caveletti work! I also wonder though if he is finding it hard to judge how much he should collect/extend by to hit the first pole right. I’m not sure how to teach him to make the mental adjustments – maybe a “steady” command? Something to think about anyway.

Kim is at Wyre tomorrow, and Mollie is flyballing at Doncaster on Sunday. I’m so glad my lectures have finished, I’m not sure I’ll be able to get up on Monday morning! I don’t expect we’ll be finished at Wyre until 6pm at the earliest, and then it’s 90min drive home. We’ll probably finish racing at Donny at 8:30pm, which means we won’t be home until 10:30. And 7am set-off both days … well, at least we’ll wear the tall-boy out.