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Speeding Up the Weave

Jamie's Rules of the Weave 
I will only try to do one proper weave per day.
I will only do a proper weave if it's at the beginning of the course.
I will only do a two footed weave.
I will only weave in cool weather.
At all other times I will walk round the poles.

Does this sound familiar? It took a lot of encouragement to get a faster weave. We're still not the wizz kids of the poles, but we are faster.   We also do more than one weave per day and in warm weather.  Here's what we tried and what eventually worked:

Things that didn't work for us but might for you:
Under the guidance of an advanced trainer we were advised to keep running and not stop to do missed poles.  If Jamie missed a pole we had to run round in a circle and do the whole weave again.  This broke Jamie's first rule as he had already tried to do one proper weave and hadn't noticed he'd missed a pole.

Fellow trainers advised the use of toys for encouragement.   It worked for them.  "Just waggle the toy as he goes through the weave and then throw it for him at the end."  Unfortunately Jamie just wanted his toy there and then and wouldn't weave at all with this method.

We tried some tasty titbits and these went down well again and again.  It didn't make Jamie weave any faster but he liked the food.

Then we watched some seniors doing the weave and I thought it might be a good idea to copy some of the strange noises they made.  I'm afraid Jamie completely ignored my "wee, wee, wee" delivered in a high pitched voice.   He thought it was me being normal and that I just wanted to go to the loo.

I also tried clapping and this was ignored completely.   If you've got a mad handler there isn't much you can do about it.  Jamie's attempts to advertise for a new one were rejected by the local paper.

Eureka!

Just when it seemed that Jamie's rules were set in stone we found the answer.  I'd spent some time doing suppling exercises and Jamie was getting quite supple as well.  We did leg weaving and figure of eight (see the obedience section.)   Then one day we did a weave and I made a "ssss" sound.  The effect was amazing.  Instead of going half heartedly at the thing we were suddenly running so I did it again and it worked again.  "Well I'll go to foot of our stairs.   My dog CAN weave.  After a long time and much frustration all it took was the right sound."

And the whole point of all this?  You can teach an old dog new tricks.  If one thing doesn't work try another and sooner or later you'll hit on just the right method.