Devon vs. the Teeter, rounds 2-5

Well, after a great round 1 with the teeter, things haven't gone so smoothly. On the second day of the teeter, Devon was hesitant. Then when she thought she was at the tipping point, she started to tip it, but then rocked back. When she did this is moved back and you could tell she was frustrated. It was if she said, "I thought I understood and now I don't and I don't want to play your game anymore!" I got her back working it, and then her rear foot slipped off and she was done. Someone came to the house, and I had to stop. I hate stopping at a point like that, but it was probably for the best. Round 2 went to the teeter.

I gave her a few days off with the hunt tests, then it was back at it this week. I lowered the teeter back to about 16 or less inches. After a little encouragement, she went over it once, but that was it. I got a leash and very neutrally put it on her and asked for the teeter again. She did go on it but didn't want to go to the tipping point. I never pulled her with the leash, but if she leaned like she was going to bail off, I put enough tension to hold her on the board. This was enough to tell her I wasn't backing down and she had to do the teeter. She was successful several times with no pressure on the leash. Round 3 was a draw.

The next evening, she didn't want to do the low teeter at all. This was frustrating to me since she was very successful the night before. However, I stayed neutral and headed for the training bucket with the leash. All I had to do was have the leash in my hands and she went to the teeter and did it fine! In fact, the little stinker was going over it with me standing in any position around the teeter, including in front of it! She just needed to know I was going to insist that she do the scary teeter. Round 4 went to Devon!

So tonight, we went back out to the teeter. She did awesome! She was volunteering it with me at any position, including 5 feet of lateral distance away! She was also standing up pretty straight. Up until now Devon has been doing a belly crawl or leaning way down to get it to tip. This is actually causing problems for her because when she leans, she throws her weight back and the board sometimes rocks back to the starting point (which caused her issues the week before). Now that she's getting more brave, she's having more success with the tipping point because she's standing up. You can tell she's really working hard to understand where she has to put the pressure to make it tip. Connor was very much like this as a young dog, too. He would press his feet at the tipping point and actually stare at it like he was concentrating really hard. Of course years later he's quite confident and happy with the teeter which is where I know Devon will be someday. Round 5 clearly went to Devon!

We have a plan of continued teeter work with jumping thrown in next week and weaves later in the week. I'm going to gradually raise it up and see if we can make progress over the next month. I've also ordered another teeter that's aluminum like most of the trial teeters. Mine is an old steel base with a solid wood plank. I'm sure it moves more slowly than the lighter weight aluminum teeters, so after she concurs the old teeter, we'll move her to the new one and then "take the show on the road" and start renting other people's equipment so she generalizes the behavior. We have a plan!