how do you teach a puppy to do weave poles?

A good start would be to find local agility courses in your area. Go there and talk to some of the handlers there to see how they trained their dogs. Hands on learning will be better for you and your dog in the long run then random people trying to type out what to do, know what I mean?

Second, make sure the puppy has the basics down first. Basic obedience should be your first concern as this will help you a LOT when trying to train for agility, especially the sit and stay commands. After you’ve got the basics down and the puppy is comfortable with those, start by setting the cones up in a straight line. Get a treat or two in your hand, and get the dog’s attention on the treat. Slowly weave your hand through the cones at the level of the dog’s nose, getting it to follow the treat. When you do this, use a word like "weave" or something similar so the dog can associate that word, with that course. Only give the treat when the dog has successfully followed the treat all the way through the cones.

Eventually the puppy will be able to do a successful "weave" without the help of a treat. Once the dog has gotten the cones down and is comfortable with that, you may want to look into buying a set of actual weave poles rather then cones to get the dog used to the real thing. It might not hurt to try and see if you could do that now so you don’t have to train the dog twice. Good luck!
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If you are using cones, then you can put them as far apart as you need to, heel work on lead and walk with your dog weaving through the cones, starting with the first cone going through on your dogs left, build this up until you can just allow the dog to weave through the cones while you walk straight holding the lead, to doing it off lead and then narrowing thecones down to weave poles distances………..once your dog understands what is required then you add the cue, however make sure your dog understands as using cones and weave poles are different
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Animal behaviourist

As an agility trainer and competitor for 14 years:

Agility is great fun, but is not easy. There are rules, methods of training, and the training is much training the dog as the handler. It is difficult for a person to correctly train their dog for something of which they actually know nothing about.

This is why it is most preferable to find an experienced agility trainer to teach you.

If you truly want to do agility and are thinking you may want to compete..find a trainer. If you are just going to "play" and have your dog "do stuff" in the backyard, then it doesn’t really matter. However, if taught incorrectly, it is VERY difficult, if not nigh on impossible to untrain what you have, and then retrain.

Re: weaves.

Usually these are not started until the dog is about 8 months or older.

Using cones isn’t really going to work; they are about 4" wide where as actual weave poles are 1". The cones will not help the dog discovering its rhythm, stride and footwork through real weave poles.

Also, there is a "right way" to have the dog actually enter the poles.

There are several different methods to train weave poles.

The most important "pre-agility" work you can do, and should do wiwth your puppy is "ground work", or AKA "flatwork". This encompasses basic obedience as well as: getting the pup to run with you at your side, on the left as well as the right….teaching the dog to quickly turn with you, teaching the dog the different turns, teaching the dog to "recall" to your side from behind, teaching him to come to your hand…

but most importantly…instilling the great drive in your puppy to "want" to play and work with you with great drive and happiness!

I suggest you find a trainer, see if they offer "pre-agility classes", go watch a class, find some agility trials and go watch, enroll in a puppy socialization or obedience class…..

links:

for locating trainers http://www.cleanrun.com

for trials: http://www.akc.org http://www.usdaa.com http://www.k9cpe.com
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thanks for keeping me up to date on this issue.

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