On Side/Off Side Weave Entries

23 Aug 2007Steve Schwarz

Sometimes you’ll hear a weave pole entry described as “On Side” or “Off Side”. These terms can be confusing because they raise the question: “whose side?”

An On Side entry is when the dog doesn’t have to wrap around the first pole to enter the weaves. Conversely, an Off Side entry requires the dog to bend around the first pole. For fun you can argue at which point approaching the weaves straight on changes from On Side to Off Side and vice versa.

I remember On Side by the idea that the dog enters the weaves “on the side” between poles one and two.

These terms only describe the dog’s path, so that is “whose side” we are referring to. You’ll also notice that the handler’s position has nothing to with whether a weave entry is On Side or Off Side.

The diagram below shows the On Side approaches to the weaves in red and the Off Side approaches in green for each weave pole entry direction.

Weave Pole Entries

Weave Pole Entries

On Side entries are typically considered the more difficult of the two types of entries as dogs are more likely to miss the entry and skip past the second pole. The need to wrap the first pole tends to cause dogs to reduce their speed (collect) for the Off Side entry. Although this isn’t always the case.

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