Teeter trials and tribulations

Devon has done a great job on the teeter since I started using the food bowl. She quickly moved up to full height and started happily sequencing it. I didn’t need the food bowl after we started sequencing, and I was very encouraged by her rapid progress. She knows exactly how to control the board movement and she’s quite confident.

Last week at her first class, I got there early and asked her for a lower teeter; the first time at a new location. She hesitated and didn’t want to go on it. We used squirt cheese in a can (I forgot the food bowl), and she was still pretty squirrelly and didn’t want to go on it. Finally I realized this was “fake” fear. She was acting to get away with not doing it. I stayed neutral, but put her leash back on and asked her for it again. Funny how she got right over her “fear” of this new teeter. The devil! Before class started she was happily going over this lower teeter without a leash and for cookies (not squirt cheese).

I got my new aluminum teeter on Sunday, and I set it lower, maybe 20 inches. The plan this week is to work the new teeter a couple of times before going to class. When I do class, I’ll take her food bowl. If she’s happily going over the lower teeter, I may try the full height teeter. I’m not going to push it, and I’ll use her experience on the new teeter at home as a guide for when I do the full height teeter at Pawsitive.