weave help please

in april this year i rescued a border collie and she has come on lovely, one problem, the weaves, now we have been taking them slowly but we think she may of been hit with a stick or something to make her do what i am about to explain,
today i just got the jumps out the van, and we have progressed to three jumps at full height and two medium height and she is loving it flys over the jumps etc, she went into the van and i put the weaves out for my old boy and did some work with him, took my rescue out the van and she bounded over to the fences, she jumped one fence saw the weaves out the corner of her eye and ran and hid under the van, now all last week she would not go out into the garden because the weaves where outside when i put the weaves away she bounded up the garden, what can i do to help her overcome her fear of them to the extent she runs away and hides,the only idea i can think of it putting two weaves out and let her go into the first two and make a huge fuss of her and build it up from there , please any advice as i don't want to spoil a brilliant dog before she even got started
carolann

I would go to total basics for her on this. I would put a pole on the ground in the garden, [ without her seeing it placed ], would scatter some of her favourite treats near it and a few close-ish to it, and would let her out on her own and watch through a window to see if and how quickly she will go anywhere near.
That way there can be no accidental interferance or distraction while she learns that its an inanimate object which wont hurt her.

Once she is confident with that I would do the same method but with a single pole in the weave base, then two, then three and so on until she is comfortable walking near or even through any poles as she bimbles in the garden. I would make no reference to her toward them during this time.

Once ok at that level, I would then re-introduce her to weaving with handler but again starting with two poles for weave entry and gradually building up.

Try not to let her see the poles being set up initially as it is likely to be a fear trigger when seeing them held or carried more than anything else, if she was hit with sticks in the past.

Once she is ok around them on the ground, then in the base, then actually starting to weave through them, you can start letting her see them handled. [ use a fun voice or even no voice at all when doing so, no direct reference to them and no coddling - let her see them for what they are, the same inanimate things she was just playing [ weaving ] around.

How long a process it may be depends on her own confidence level but how ever long it does take will be worth it once she has cracked the fear

** The above is what I would suggest in cases of severe trauma in this regard and you will be able to judge how far you need to take each step if you even need to use all of them.
My Silk was rescued during being beaten by several yobs with sticks, in the street, yet incredibly she is not afraid of weave poles but if she had been, the above is what I would have done with her.

thank you for that such a brill and simple idea will start tomorrow morning and will keep you informed if that is ok with our progress

Please do report on progress, it would be great to know if this helps her, and of course how she gets on generally !
Pics are a must pretty please

the other thing I would do is get her checked out by a chiro. Kelly was very slow in the weaves and he had to work really hard with them, I had him checked out and he wasn't straight anywhere! It could be that you have started with her and she is uncomfortable and doesn't want to do them because of that? I know Kel wasn't keen

from a dogs point of view, weaves are pointless. Why go through when you can go past quicker? Deef used to go in the first and last 2 and run past the ones in the middle wiggling his bum! Sol has tried a similar thing You have to give them a reason to do weaves, it took deef 12 months to have good reliable weaves, and he is obsessed with them, Sol is just getting the idea and Kel these days will run round the field and go and do some just cos they are there

we are going through 3 weaves from today no pressure on her just guiding her through with my hand and a very tasty treat, but i am now starting to wonder if it is me, i think my body movement might be showing displeasure to her when she gets it wrong going to get hubby to video me and see what happens the reason i say this did not take any weaves training today left them in the garden, and she did two jumps and clipped a pole all i said was what you done you silly girl in a light airy fairy voice and she bolted for the van, i just took her collar and put her on the leader led her back to the jump and took her over the jump and praised her, that is what made me think it must be something i am doing.
carolann

Aaaaah - looks like you have found an answer there.

When she clips a pole or doesnt get something right, its best to make no reference at all, neither playful or otherwise, just calmly re-do it after considering how you can alter her cue for it, which might mean doing something else she is already reliable at first to give her confidence for the next attempt [ and gives you time to think how to alter a cue / timing etc ].

By making no reference she wont feel `bad`, plus you wont innadvertantly over-do the reassurance, and by redoing the element you can lavish the praise for getting it right which gives her the feedback she needs to reinforce that what she did is what you were after.

Bear in mind, my agility dogs are deaf so they get no audible feedback at all so I make sure my body language and expression for them is the same the first time we approach an element and for if something wasnt right and needs re-doing - that way they get a `clean start` each time and the praise afterward lets them know to do something the same way next time when they got it right [ especially weaves and contacts ].

I feel this approach, which is what they taught me works for them, is why they have no negative association to the equipment when something goes wrong, and its how I get my students to work as well.
We all make handler errors which are hard to hide our frsutration at ourselves, but its soooo important not to let on to the dog as they will feel the handlers error must have been their [ the dogs ] fault.

We will look forward to more progress reports when you have them - and dont forget photies soon

went to lune valley yesterday, she went through two collapsible tunnels and a ridgid and then went over half the jumps went around the wing of a jump i called her back and because she knew she had made a mistake she ran away my daughter caughter her, i am going to give up agility with her for about a month i am going to let her watch the boys train but because i am getting frustrated with her as she was doing everything contacts jumps i don't know why she is doing this so i thought i am going back to just walking her, and playing ball with her for a month and get her back to relaxing and see if then getting back into agility works, my friends video me at the show and they said when she went around the wing, you did ok, you kept your voice light and happy and playfull and you ran to the next fence saying come on then lets play but she till ******ed off,
carolann

Thats a good idea to give her a break from it, getting frustrated does no one any good, least of all the dog.

Sounds like she is very very sensitive and probably assumes the worst when an error happens, especially if she was mistreated for making mistakes generally before she was in rescue.

She has been with you a relatively short time and as happens a lot with previously unhappy dogs, is probably at the stage where she is starting to feel really settled but worrying that it could end.
Sorry to use such a human analogy but its something I`ve seen often when a dog really does worry that if it does anything wrong it will lose all it has come to need and become accustomed to in terms of security.

If thats whats happening, giving her a break from the main source of your frustration and her worry will show her that not getting something perfectly does not mean her world will end and that you will abandon her for it.

If she is going to get to watch your others while you train, please do make sure that if there are things you need them to re-do during training, that you dont ever tell them off or get annoyed with yourself, not just for them and your own stress levels from something not working as you want it to, but also because she may well be sensitive enough to still think its `her fault` just through proximity and as we all should know in agility, there is only handler error, not dog error, and all errors anyway should be seen as a learning opportunity, not as a problem