Weave pole footing

[wildo]

I always considered the "rear foot hop" to be a bad thing. Admittedly, I have always judged a dog's weave pole performance on speed (of course), but also on front foot placement. It seems to me that when you only see one front foot hit per side, that's when the dog has the best chance at being fast. Notice the front foot placement in most of these dogs:

Dog Agility - Weave Poles (in HD) - YouTube

Dog Agility - Weave Poles (in HD) - YouTube

The very fast ones (and wow- what a great group of weavers!) or only putting one front foot down per side. Contrast that with this dog (see 0:22):

Cavalier Agility (SLOW MOTION MOVIE) - YouTube

Cavalier Agility (SLOW MOTION MOVIE) - YouTube

...Big difference. And yes I realize the second video is in slow motion.

What is (perhaps) more interesting is to take a look at the rear feet. Like I said, I always watch the front feet on weaving dogs, but have started noticing this "rear foot hopping" motion in Pimg as she is weaving. When I rewatch the first video, looks like all the fast dogs are placing both rear feet on each side. Interesting. And note- even the slow Cavalier Spaniel is "hopping" on its rear legs.

So maybe there is something to be said about rear foot placement. I am thinking that it is likely less important than front foot placement though.

Anyone happen to have a good article or video on proper foot placement in weave poles?

[I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO]

I'm very interested to see what people say about this. When Mikko was weaving with 22" poles, both his front and rear legs were placed one at a time, and his weaves were really fast. Now that everything he does is 24", his rear legs hop, as his front legs do one and one, and he is slower. I've been trying to speed him back up.

[wildo]

Originally Posted by I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO

both his front and rear legs were placed one at a time, and his weaves were really fast.

When you say they are both placed one at a time, do you mean where it looks like the dog is practically walking (or running) right through the center of the weaves? Like giant breeds often do?

You Tube

You Tube

[wildo]

Ok this is even better!

Purina 60 Weave Pole Challenge - YouTube

Purina 60 Weave Pole Challenge - YouTube

[I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO]

Yep, like he's walking or running through the weaves. Here's a picture.

[wildo]

Yeah- that definitely seemed incredibly fast for that dobbie in the 60 pole challenge! Sweet photo, by the way!

[WarrantsWifey]

Okay, I LOVED that first video, makes me want to own a collie, and on another note, that Husky was too **** cute!!!

[wildo]

Originally Posted by WarrantsWifey

Okay, I LOVED that first video

I did too! But gotta say- I've been looking at agility videos for an hour or so now. After watching this one, wow- this first video I posted in this thread no longer looks like fast dogs at all... Of course, they are fast, very fast, but the dogs in this link are exceptional in all senses of the word. Purina Agility Challenge- Incredible!

[wildo]

So- to summarize the styles seen so far, we have three options:

1. Hoping (both feet touch on each individual weave pole gap) with back AND front feet.
2. Hoping with back feet while a single front foot lands per individual weave pole gap.
3. Walking (running) through where a single rear and single front foot lands per individual weave pole gap.

Based on the 60 weave pole challenge videos above, it does seem that method #3 is faster for large dogs, and interestingly- the announcers even mention this when the Doberman is weaving. And that's a point to not overlook- perhaps the different methods are better suited for different dogs. I can't find a single video of a Border Collie doing the #3 method, they all seem to do the #2 method. They are also much smaller than our GSDs. In fact, it seems that small Shelties seem to do really well with the #1 method.

So perhaps we can generalize a theory such as this:
The larger the dog, less foot contact per each individual weave pole gap is desired.
As dog size decreases, foot placement may increase.

[TaraM1285]

There was a great thread on the Clean Run Yahoo group back in June on single striding vs. hopping. A couple of articles were posted also. I think the articles posted were in regards to the physical safety of the methods of single-striding versus the hopping.