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Need help with the Teeter....


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My BC mix is now 2 years old and has just started actual agility training last week, I ahve been taking her about everyday for about an hour when we don't have classes though jsut to get her used to the obstacles. So far she's doing really well but she's terrified of the teeter! as soon as she get's to the middle and it starts to tip she starts shaking and jumps off immediately. Does anyone here know how to calm her down?

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Whoa! You just started training a two year old dog a week ago and you're going everyday on your own to play on the obstacles and she's already on a full height teeter? How many mistakes can you make at once? Maybe I didn't understand, but:

 

1. Where's the instructor?

2. Why are you asking this question on a BC board?

 

You and your dog will have a much better time with agility if you follow a rational training plan. I don't know of anyone who recommends starting out by sending the dog over full height obstacles. Despite what newcomers expect, agility is much more about teamwork and handling than about mastering the obstacles themselves.

 

Sorry if I misunderstood the question.

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I agree with alaska.

Is this your first agility dog. Do Not go on the see saw again at full ht I know handlers who did this and it took along time to get the dog over the see saw.

you should ask your trainner about home work. IE working on the flat. sit stays downs having dog stay close to you on both sides , maybe singel jump work ect

do not push your dog exsp. if you do not know what your doing. he could get hurt and or afraid of the obs. this will not help your relatioship.

Do have fun and enjoy your dog. bobh and the gang of 4

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Your dog is scared of the motion. To build that much needed confidence, back up, go back to a wobble board. You can make your own wobble board by cutting a piece of plywood big enough for your dog to stand and turn around on, then cut a tennis ball in half and place it cut side down underneath the middle of the board. Play around with this and praise/treat/play with your dog for making it tip. You can encourage/lure the dog up on the board (front paws only at first), but don't force the dog to do anything, try to make it as fun and low stress/pressure as possible. When your dog can run over the wobble board and is confidently controlling the motion, then you can move to a baby teeter. Get a long piece of 2"x12" board and place something underneath the center to make the board rock back and forth like a teeter (but not roll). Start off small, so the board is only tipping a few inches, and ask your dog to run back and forth over this baby teeter. When your dog is comfortable with this, you can add height to it a little at a time, by changing what's under the board making it pivot. Gradually increase the height as much as you can, then you can move on to a full size teeter.

 

This can all be done from the comfort of your back yard and it's pretty inexpensive.

 

-Laura

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It'd not full height and I've been training her in ym yard with actual obstacles for about a year and half now. HSe's always had a problem with it and we can't seem to get her through it. I'm asking this on a BC board seeing as she is half BC and acts exactly like one, plus I knwo alot of BC's are involved in agility.

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Woohoo, a toller/bc mix, that must be a lot of fun! I've got a friend with 2 tollers and they are FAST. If I could handle the toller scream I'd have one.

 

Your dog is scared of the teeter and you need to totally retrain it. Even put a different word to it.

 

Do you use a clicker? If so, I'd put the teeter down so it's flat and start from scratch with the most high-value treat I could find and c/t like crazy for being near the teeter, then on the teeter even just one paw, then going to the end of it. Then gradually (like one link on the chain at a time) start raising it. You need to start all over again like the dog has never seen the teeter before. This whole process should go very slowly and in very short training sessions.

 

Is your dogs crazed at mealtime for his/her food? If you have a teeter at home you could start feeding his/her meals on the low teeter.

 

The idea of a wobble board is great too because that gets them used to movement under their feet and if you have one or could make one I'd set it up in my kitchen or other central area and use it a lot.

 

You could also use another method of retraining the teeter using a pause table either under the upside or the downside of it. And if your dog is sound sensitive you can put a towel or some other padding under the end of it so there's not so much of a bang.

 

Try and make your goal to teach your dog to go right to the end of the teeter without pausing at the tip point. You can reinforce this from the beginning by making sure that the reward come at the end of the teeter. (that is once you have him/her running the length of it flat on the ground).

 

This is a little long, sorry! Good luck!

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Happy used to be scared of the teeter, I worked with her at home with just whatever I found. we boaght a board for the teeter, but for the base we used an only bus bench(you can go to the dump to find this sort of stuff lol) not I playes the bus bench over eo the back cornor was at the top, then I plaed the board on it, now to soften the noise and to lower the fall I just found random stuff to place under each end, when she got the hange of that I would slowly make the stuff I used smaller, till the only thing under each end was a flat mini basketball, mainly that was just to softenb the noise. after a lot of work Happy went from scared to go near the teeter to it being her favorite obstical oh I also would place treat along the teeter board it encurages then to want to go on the teeter and to go slowly, make sure you put more hwere the tip it so she does not fly off and scare herself lol

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