I have Rook entered in jumpers only at an upcoming AKC trial so I thought I would get some weave pole entry work, an area neglected in her training. I sent her straight through and she was fine. Then she had a missed entry and left the weaves early a few times so we did them over. I (unintentionally) gave a NRM (no doubt, with some frustration in my voice) once. Rook stopped “swimming” and was no longer one stepping, but she did all 12 poles so of course I praised her. She did it this way on the next one as well, so I stopped the session after these two “successes.” I brought Sammie the Rottie out for a few comparison runs. Then I went inside to watch the runs and time each dog. Rook started at 2.6 seconds but her last 2 weaves were 3.2! From her point of view, I told her it was more important to be RIGHT than FAST, I actually PRAISED her 3.2 performance twice. For comparison, Sammie was 2.5-2.6 seconds.
Rook’s first run.
Rook’s final run.
Sammie’s run.
For me, two training points: 1) I suck at and cannot use the NRM appropriately, and 2) dogs will do what is rewarding, so be careful that you do NOT reward slow performances!
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