Sunday, June 7, 2009

LIz/Breeze some teeter brush up...

After the accident Breeze has been bailing off the teeter mid teeter pretty consistently, something was bothering her. I started doing some teeter work and this is a new game I just starting trying yesterday. This is some of the height work that was on the Wendy Pape teeter video. I would DEFINITELY NOT do this with any dog that did not have a LOT of plank work and back end awareness, and I did stay right next to the dogs. It was just funny because this is the third try at this little game. The first time Liz was a little weirded out, Breeze had her nails out and was not at all comfortable. I just lifted them up to the end position and fed, fed, fed, then lifted them down. By the second time Liz broke free and went running up the board, and Breeze was OK, by the third time both dogs were really into it. Anyway, I just have been trying to get the dogs really driving to the end of the board, but they have been slowing a little bit at the pivot point, so I had been working with the teeter permanently going down and working on getting them to drive to the bottom, which was working somewhat. I like this because as far as treat placement- there is a piece of duct tape-taped to the end of the board and the dogs can not see it when they get on the board, then I put spray cheese on it and I can deliver the treats from under and in front of the board or on the tape, and they really seem to get the forward position and driving to the end with just these couple of sessions. Cherry is not good enough on the plank for me to feel safe letting her do this, more plank work for her first. I can just put Cherry up at the top though and feed and it does not bother her at all, I just do not trust her not to quit paying attention, spazz out and let her feet go flying all over the place, she is an excitable girl!

2 comments:

Diana said...

It looks good. I dont understand the duct tape concept. The duct take is on the end of the board, is it flat and stuck to the board? Why do you need to do that? Why cant you just put the chesse on the teeter board directly? thanks, Diana

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

The tape is like a little treat plate that is just on the end of the teeter sticking out and the great thing is that the dog does not know if it is there or not when they get on, so they drive to the end looking for it, not knowing if it is there or not and it makes sure they go all the way to the end of the board because they can not lay down a few inches from the end and just reach forward to get the treat like they could if it was just on the end of the board, so not a huge difference but it really does seem to help to get a bit nicer position for getting a sliding teeter