DREAM WEAVES DVD
by Ann Croft (See other books by author)

Summary: Use Dream Weaves to help you create those "perfect" weaves. Ann Croft shows you the training progression from start to finish using a combination of the channel method with the Weave-A-Matic (slanted poles) method.

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Price: $29.95

Use Dream Weaves to help you create those "perfect" weaves. Ann Croft shows you the training progression from start to finish using the channel method with the Weave-A-Matic (slanted poles) method.

Problem solving or start-to-finish; new puppy or the canine veteran; toy or food motivation; weave pole channel or Weave-A-Matic; Ann coaches you through each situation to the end result- the Dream Weave.

What reviewers are saying...

APDT CHRONICLE OF THE DOG
“Ann Croft has been competing in agility for the past twelve years and is the owner of Paws on the Wind Dog Sports & Training. She has competed in eight USDAA trials and in all nine of the AKC National Championships. Ann also holds a degree in Animal Behavior from the University of California at San Diego. I was excited to get the chance to review this DVD as agility is always fun and exciting to watch. The outside cover of the DVD is colorful and has a great picture of a dog weaving straight at you, making eye contact with the camera. The DVD itself is simply produced, interspersing video of Ann teaching with written summaries of each “chapter”. The video begins with Ann explaining her method. She begins young dogs or beginning dogs on a channel of weave poles where the dogs don’t have to bend their spine and possibly injure themselves before they are physically developed enough to handle the stress of weaving through upright poles. Ann explains how important it is to develop a motivator for a dog and to build drive to reach that motivator as the weaving becomes more and more precise and demanding. She discusses two types of motivators (either food or a toy) and demonstrates how to get the dog excited about their motivator and then how to begin backchaining running to their motivator from the weave poles themselves. The method is kept simple and the dog is moved forward in baby steps so that they progress as cleanly as possible without forming bad habits. Ann discusses many interesting concepts regarding teaching weave poles beyond the poles themselves – such as how to develop a proper entry by using a clock face, first starting at “12:00” and then proceeding gradually between 10:00 and 2:00; how to proof your dog’s understanding by moving the motivator to odd angles; and how to fade away the motivator itself. When describing using a clock face, it did get a little bit confusing and Ann jumped from demonstrating with the beginner dog to using a well-trained dog. I felt that this didn’t really give one a chance to learn exactly *how* to problem-solve if the dog had trouble finding the correct entry, although Ann did explain that one should simply back up and start over. It seemed that this could be a problem to someone who might be trying to train their dog by watching the DVD. Similarly, when Ann was beginning to move the poles from being flat on the ground gradually to a more upright position she switched to demonstrating with a well-trained dog, who of course ran through the upright poles beautifully. Again, this seemed to sort of skip over details of how one might have to problem-solve with a beginner dog. Oddly, Ann occasionally would give a demo and it would fail, such as when she wanted to show how one might use wires to help guide a dog to prevent “popping out” of the correct weaving behavior, and her experienced dog jumped out of the wires altogether – or when, as mentioned above, she was trying to bring the poles to a more upright position with the beginner dog and he kept failing at which point she brought out the more experienced dog to demonstrate the behavior. This sort of thing gave the video a somewhat incomplete feel, as if the teaching progression wasn’t clearly planned or as if they didn’t have time to go back and redo these parts of the video. Ann also spends several minutes teaching two different owners how to begin their dogs through the weave poles. I have to admit I found this part repetitive and not particularly interesting or helpful. I would have preferred to see Ann continue to teach her method in more detail. At the conclusion of the DVD Ann does a section on Training Problems and how to approach them. I found this to be very interesting as it really demonstrated Ann’s knowledge and how she uses her techniques to find a way to help dogs (and owners) who have formed incorrect habits. I would have liked to see more of this in greater detail if that would have been possible. Overall this DVD does a good job of demonstrating one method of teaching weave poles, albeit rather unevenly at times. The written material displayed between each “chapter” gave organized and clear information to summarize each section of information.” Valerie Polard

Dig In

Back Cover

• 4 ON THE FLOOR - MODIFIED RUNNING CONTACTS DVD
• BUILDING THE CANINE ATHLETE - STRENGTH, STRETCH, ENDURANCE & BODY AWARENESS EXCERCISES DVD
• 2X2 WEAVE POLE TRAINING DVD

• TAKING CARE OF PUPPY BUSINESS
• POSITIVE PUPPY TRAINING WORKS
• SMART TRAINERS, BRILLIANT DOGS
• CRATE GAMES - FOR SELF CONTROL AND MOTIVATION DVD
• GOOD DOG! - KIDS TEACH KIDS ABOUT DOG BEHAVIOR AND TRAINING