teeter work
The little portable 8 foot x 12 inch teeter from Affordable Agility arrived two days ago... After putting it together we tried introducing it to Stella the way we had first introduced the Wobble Board in Dawn Prentiss's class at Semper Fido in Brooklyn... reward for sniffing, reward for a paw on, two paws on, three paws... when comfortable, then only rewarding for three paws or more... Moving up the board on three paws was what was comfortable in this first session, with one paw still on the solid ground... She would try four paws and even take a couple steps but jump off immediately... My sister was holding the up end of the board so it wouldn't move down with Stella's weight at all at first... and then gradually allowing some give, an inch maybe... Stella wasn't happy about that...
But I wanted to make sure that she understood that this piece of equipment was not the dogwalk, which does have a ramp up like this, but then a flat cross ramp and down ramp and does not move. We only just got her back to taking the dogwalk again after that class at the beginning of the summer when she accidently ran off course and over the teeter thinking it was the dogwalk... she used to love the dogwalk and the fact that this thing she thought was the dogwalk not only moved, but went down with a bang and caught her back end as she jumped off, made us not only have to sort of reintroduce the concept of a dogwalk, but basically deleted any wobble/teeter work we'd already done...
I was thinking of doing this three paws and four paws with a little movement for five or six minutes every day...
and leaving the full motion and bang of the teeter way in the future...
Today Dawn gave me some other things to try... She said first and foremost TAKE IT SLOW...
She said, if ours were an adjustable teeter she would have me put it at its lowest setting and have Stella run across the entire thing with something, rolled blankets or something to keep it from banging at the down end... its not adjustable... so she suggested propping it on a table or something so that it still moves a little tiny bit and feed feed feed at that bang end, even taping a plate of goodies at the bang end, making this the funnest spot in the world... so she doesn't jump off
and then, I was not sure about this... but Dawn says I do want to teach her to go all the way to the end and ride it down... the tipping point on competition equipment is all different and it would be useless to ask her to figure out where the tipping point is, because it wouldn't be the same from teeter to teeter and this would likely throw a dog like Stella off...
She suggested renting the ring at CSC where we take classes and put the teeter at the lowest setting and have her run it both ways... right way and wrong way... which may not be kosher but it helped her dog Whisper... I think actually Stella would like that once we got her going one way...
Dawn suggested treating also for staying on when I pick up the down end behind Stella and move it up and down...
She suggested the Bang It game which sounds great... getting the dog to jump on at the up end to bang it, starting with one foot, two feet, and then just jumping up on it, giving lots of high value treats... She said to really make a big deal of it, be goofy, lots of wow
she sent me a link to a video of this work ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnZ_sDcNIYE )
(I wish I could see how they are keeping the one end of the teeter partly up... I'll have to look for more of her youtubes on this)
and last... after class a couple times I have parked Stella right next to the teeter when another dog was running over it and treated her for the bang the other dog makes... of course duh, I knew this, but Dawn reminded me I need to start far away where Stella is not startling at all at the teeter sound and gradually work closer and closer...
so we have a lot of work ahead... I have to remember to GO SLOW... thanks Dawn
The new Teeter:
I rolled up a lake raft and put a bungie cord around it to keep the end from going down, but letting it have a degree of give... and brought a can of fish along...
my fingers still smell like mackerel...
She did pretty well... stayed on for me to take some pictures---good girl Stell!
But I wanted to make sure that she understood that this piece of equipment was not the dogwalk, which does have a ramp up like this, but then a flat cross ramp and down ramp and does not move. We only just got her back to taking the dogwalk again after that class at the beginning of the summer when she accidently ran off course and over the teeter thinking it was the dogwalk... she used to love the dogwalk and the fact that this thing she thought was the dogwalk not only moved, but went down with a bang and caught her back end as she jumped off, made us not only have to sort of reintroduce the concept of a dogwalk, but basically deleted any wobble/teeter work we'd already done...
I was thinking of doing this three paws and four paws with a little movement for five or six minutes every day...
and leaving the full motion and bang of the teeter way in the future...
Today Dawn gave me some other things to try... She said first and foremost TAKE IT SLOW...
She said, if ours were an adjustable teeter she would have me put it at its lowest setting and have Stella run across the entire thing with something, rolled blankets or something to keep it from banging at the down end... its not adjustable... so she suggested propping it on a table or something so that it still moves a little tiny bit and feed feed feed at that bang end, even taping a plate of goodies at the bang end, making this the funnest spot in the world... so she doesn't jump off
and then, I was not sure about this... but Dawn says I do want to teach her to go all the way to the end and ride it down... the tipping point on competition equipment is all different and it would be useless to ask her to figure out where the tipping point is, because it wouldn't be the same from teeter to teeter and this would likely throw a dog like Stella off...
She suggested renting the ring at CSC where we take classes and put the teeter at the lowest setting and have her run it both ways... right way and wrong way... which may not be kosher but it helped her dog Whisper... I think actually Stella would like that once we got her going one way...
Dawn suggested treating also for staying on when I pick up the down end behind Stella and move it up and down...
She suggested the Bang It game which sounds great... getting the dog to jump on at the up end to bang it, starting with one foot, two feet, and then just jumping up on it, giving lots of high value treats... She said to really make a big deal of it, be goofy, lots of wow
she sent me a link to a video of this work ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnZ_sDcNIYE )
(I wish I could see how they are keeping the one end of the teeter partly up... I'll have to look for more of her youtubes on this)
and last... after class a couple times I have parked Stella right next to the teeter when another dog was running over it and treated her for the bang the other dog makes... of course duh, I knew this, but Dawn reminded me I need to start far away where Stella is not startling at all at the teeter sound and gradually work closer and closer...
so we have a lot of work ahead... I have to remember to GO SLOW... thanks Dawn
The new Teeter:
I rolled up a lake raft and put a bungie cord around it to keep the end from going down, but letting it have a degree of give... and brought a can of fish along...
my fingers still smell like mackerel...
She did pretty well... stayed on for me to take some pictures---good girl Stell!