teeter issues

[Barb Scott]

Our 18 month old R/T started agility classes this summer. I had health issues last year which is why she had to wait so long. She's doing great on all the obstacles except she absolutely is scared to death of the teeter. Our instructor is going to be gone next week and I'd like to make some progress during this time. We have our own adjustable teeter which I just set to the lowest setting (on the ground, actually). She doesn't appear to be afraid of the noise, just the movement. None of our previous agility dogs (7 since 1999) have had teeter issues so I'm at a loss. Any ideas???

Barb S

[airbear]

Well, I feel your pain. Wick wouldn't interact with the teeter for 18 months. I don't think it was noise either - she just didn't trust it. I did the balance board stuff, the wobbly board on the ground, the bang-it game, and she did all those fine, but she just wasn't a fan of the actual teeter. I think I kind of stuck my head in the sand, let her learn the other pieces of equipment, let her watch other dogs do the teeter, in the hopes that the lightbulb would come on. We even trialed in classes where we could omit the teeter (Gamblers and Jumpers). In fact, she was in Masters Jumpers before she ever set foot in a Starters Standard ring.

 

Finally, I got fed up with it, put her leash on and led her over the lowered teeter briskly. When she reached the end, I told her 'touch', which she knew from the other contacts. She popped into a 2o/2o and gave me a look like "Oh, this is what you wanted?" That same night, we raised the teeter to the next height, then the next, and by the end of the night she was doing full-height teeters with great enthusiasm.

 

My feeling is that we were feeding off each other's fears. I was scared that she would balk on the teeter, so I kind of hovered over her. She decided that this tippy thing COULD POSSIBLY KILL HER since I was having such a freak-out over it, so she refused to do it. Once I changed my attitude about the teeter, she changed hers. Every now and again, she gets spooky about a dogwalk that has too much bounce, or she might mistake the teeter for the dogwalk and take huge air (we don't have slats on either and sometimes, I don't tell her what we're doing because things are moving a bit too fast/loud). However, the teeter hasn't been a problem for us once I decided to approach it with the same matter-of-fact attitude that I do with the other pieces of equipment.

 

Good luck with your girl!

[Alaska]

Another thought. There was an article in Clean Run a while back with a name like "Jungle Gym Teeter". If I remember right, the idea was just to get the dog interacting with the teeter, pawing it, jumping on and off, whatever. Kind of like 100 Things to Do With a Box. Maybe you could try rewarding any interaction with the teeter to get the dog over whatever it's worrying about? (Hope I'm remembering the article right...ah, AgilityNerd says it was Nov 2004, by Linda Mecklenberg)

[dogsofmenace]

Another thought. There was an article in Clean Run a while back with a name like "Jungle Gym Teeter".

 

 

I was going to recommend that as well. There was also a recent article by Leslie McDevitt about a dog afraid of the teeter. She actually used getting off the teeter and running away from it as a reward for the dog interacting with the teeter, since he was so afraid of it. That was in the June '08 issue.

 

If you haven't done stuff with a wobble board, I would do that first. Also, if you can prop up your teeter on its lowest height so that it doesn't move at all, that would be good too. Then you can have her interact with it and slowly add movement to it.

[CLW1]

I have a dog that had a fantastic teeter until about a year ago when one collapesed underneath him in class. After that, he was terrified of it and I had to start from scratch with him. Worse than starting from scratch actually, since there was the fear issue.

 

I started out with 2 tables with the teeter resting on both and ran him back and forth across it. He's really food motivated and his food bowl makes him crazed, so I put food bowls on each table and had him race back and forth and I'd toss food into the bowls for him. If you use a target that would work too. I was clicking for him getting to the end to the bowl. I slowly raised the teeter so that there was a little bit of bang to it on either end, so he was getting the movement and noise at both food bowls (I did this pretty slowly). I eventually progressed to just one table on the up side of the teeter and started again with a straight plank and no bang or movement and slowly raised the teeter. I do a 2o2o contact behavior and once I started using just 1 table I went back to asking for it at the end of the teeter. When it was on 2 tables I was just letting him get off it or stop however he wanted. Most of the time he was naturally in a 2o2o as he put his head into the food bowls.

 

Once I got to him doing the teeter at full height I was still getting some fear issues occasionally. He just wasn't attacking the teeter like he used to and occasionally he'd refuse it altogether. Someone suggested that I place whatever his favorite obstacle is right after the teeter, so it'd be part of the reward. He loves tunnels so I started putting a tunnel right after the teeter and rewarding after the tunnel. It made a huge difference and got us past that last part of the fear.

 

Also, while we were doing the teeter on the 2 tables, I taught him to slam the board down with his paw for a reward, to jump on it, etc. All fun and tons of reward. I think I used the Linda M article for that part of it.

 

Hope this helps. I was pretty devastated when the teeter collapsed under him and I was afraid he'd never get his confidence back but he has.

[Barb Scott]

Well, I feel your pain. Wick wouldn't interact with the teeter for 18 months. I don't think it was noise either - she just didn't trust it. I did the balance board stuff, the wobbly board on the ground, the bang-it game, and she did all those fine, but she just wasn't a fan of the actual teeter. I think I kind of stuck my head in the sand, let her learn the other pieces of equipment, let her watch other dogs do the teeter, in the hopes that the lightbulb would come on. We even trialed in classes where we could omit the teeter (Gamblers and Jumpers). In fact, she was in Masters Jumpers before she ever set foot in a Starters Standard ring.

 

Finally, I got fed up with it, put her leash on and led her over the lowered teeter briskly. When she reached the end, I told her 'touch', which she knew from the other contacts. She popped into a 2o/2o and gave me a look like "Oh, this is what you wanted?" That same night, we raised the teeter to the next height, then the next, and by the end of the night she was doing full-height teeters with great enthusiasm.

 

^{How low was it when you started leading her across it? I've been clicking when she touches it, etc. but she absolutely wants nothing to do with it. The strange thing is she still has no problem with the dogwalk... Our last 2 BCs learned the teeter first (during the winter when it was the only contact that fit in our little basement).}

^{Barb S}

[Root Beer]

There was an article in this past June's Clean Run about dealing with teeter issues. It's by Leslie McDevitt and it's fantastic. I followed it pretty much as described and Dean, who wanted nothing to do with it before, is actually starting to tip it on his own now!!

 

The surprising part of it is that you can actually use the dog's strong desire to get off the teeter as a reward for getting on it! It really, really worked wonders with Dean.

 

I obviously can't reproduce the article, but if you want a synopsis, I could PM you with some suggestions from it.

[Barb Scott]

There was an article in this past June's Clean Run about dealing with teeter issues. It's by Leslie McDevitt and it's fantastic. I followed it pretty much as described and Dean, who wanted nothing to do with it before, is actually starting to tip it on his own now!!

 

The surprising part of it is that you can actually use the dog's strong desire to get off the teeter as a reward for getting on it! It really, really worked wonders with Dean.

 

I obviously can't reproduce the article, but if you want a synopsis, I could PM you with some suggestions from it.

Thanks, I have the article now.

barb

[Barb Scott]

Just an update on R/T and the teeter. My first post was October 2 and it's now November 1st. I've been mostly using ideas from the CLEANRUN article by Leslie McDevitt about a dog afraid of the teeter and also some luring with party cheese (in a squirt can). R/T will now happily approach the teeter, stand on her hind legs and lick the cheese off of the board and willingly run up to almost the tip point before bailing off. I've been giving her a C/T for going higher on the teeter, starting with a C/T for approaching it, then touching it , then putting 2 front feet on etc. She'll also do the entire teeter (very slowly) if I lure her with the squirt cheese just in front of her nose. I'm actually beginning to think she'll be fine on it, but it might take another few months at this time.

Barb S

[2 Devils]

With my fearful border collie, we played the bang it game with the teeter. We had her slam one end of the teeter after revving her up and then rewarding. It took about 10 minutes and then she would walk across it without a problem. We made the teeter a lot of fun...