Devon's teeter retrain

Devon achieved a major accomplishment Tuesday night: she sequenced the teeter in class for the first time since October 2009! Devon is a confident dog and had all positive experiences as a puppy, including lots of woods walking and on wobble boards. However, the teeter has been an issue for her from the first time I asked her to put her front feet on the lowered end of the board and it sank under her.

Although Devon had a teeter performance and earned her NA and OA very quickly, I knew it wasn't a confident performance. Then back in October she got spooked by my shadow going across the teeter in front of her and she bailed off. She refused to get back on it, which frustrated me. Thanks to my reaction, a potentially small blip turned into months of refusing to do the teeter and a huge problem.

Over the winter, I clicked and treated any interaction with the teeter. That worked for confidence around the teeter and on the bottom of the board, but she still would only go to the pivot point and refuse to go over it. By February as this problem continued to lurk, I began talking with good agility trainers I knew looking for another solution. The hard part about this teeter issue is it's not a "training issue;" it's a fear issue. Somehow I had to overcome that fear.

Also, I was convinced even though Devon had a "performance" on the teeter, she never really understood she controlled the board. I felt this lack of understanding that she was in control was the root of her fear. What caused the initial fear was when I asked her to play the "bang game" for the first time on the up end of a lowered board (she was almost 12 months old). The very first time she put her paws and full weight on the board and it dropped out from under her, she was done. Yet I knew she would have to learn to do this if she was to have a confident teeter, but because that was the source of her initial fear it was the hardest thing to overcome.

As I talked with other trainers, the idea of working out the problem away from the actual equipment was born. It was followed up by another friend who said one of the dogs she worked with who had teeter fears started first on a wooden board that moved. Wobble boards were out, because they don't have predictable movement. However, it gave me an idea for something else.

In February I stopped asking Devon for the teeter completely; we wouldn't even go near it in class or at home (but she had to watch Page work the teeter, and Page has a great teeter). I got a 1" x 12" x 12' board and cut it into 3 pieces (three 1" x 12" x 4' boards). Then I nailed three dowel rods under the middle of each 4' board. One dowel was 1 inch, the next 1.5 inches and the third 2 inches.

I started with the 1 inch dowel board and at first ask Devon to use her front foot to bang down the up end of the board. She got very high value treats that she only got for this particular exercise (thanks to Agile Gold for buying out the supply of elk jerky, buffalo jerky and ostrich jerky from a specialty pet store for us!). After she gave me a foot bang, I asked for foot bang then full weight with the front feet on the board. This was critical and probably the hardest thing for Devon to do. I did do some luring at this point instead of just shaping, but once she got the idea of what I wanted, she had to offer the behavior I wanted. Finally asked Devon to bang down the up end and pull her body onto the board and walk into a 2o2o position.

Once Devon was banging the board from the pivot point and walking down it, I asked her to walk back and forth across the board banging both ends. She was now giving me the teeter bang game but on something different than an actually teeter where she associated so much fear. My goal was to get her to understand that she moved and controlled the board off the teeter thinking it would transfer to the equipment.

The second key to my re-training is that I started clicking at the pivot point and rewarding her immediately there. I know this sounds obvious, but Jenn Crank caught something when Page got spooked by her teeter at our lesson the end of April. Jenn said I was clicking in the yellow contact zone and not the middle where I needed to reward the brave behavior. I bet I did that with Devon, too, it just took someone else listening to my clicks to catch that I was clicking late.

Each session was very short. I would only take 12 pieces of jerky out with me and when it was gone our session was done. In about 6 weeks Devon worked up to the 2 inch board. Once she was happily giving me the behavior at home, our little board went on the road. I knew Devon was ready for more when I was at a different training building and after working on her teeter board I used a longer teeter board they had with a 6 inch pivot point and she had no problems offering me the behavior I wanted.

Once we had confidence on the road, I dropped the teeter here at home as low as possible and asked for the behavior on the teeter. Once she was banging the low teeter, I asked Devon to walk back and forth across the low teeter, just as I had the boards. It took her no time at all to become confident on the low teeter, and I'm sure it was because she figured out she controlled the movement on the small wooden boards.

From the low teeter, I just started raising my teeter here at home a couple inches at a time until she was at full height. A couple of weeks ago I lowered the teeter at the kennel club during a private training session. Devon successfully did it and I kept raising it until it was full height. We also worked at a second training building with success on a low teeter but she wouldn't do the full height teeter. After that minor setback, I lowered my teeter here at home, but she was so confident I went right up to full height in one session with only 8 cookies.

Last night before class started I took Devon to the teeter in class and asked her for it. She went over it on the second attempt, and earned a huge party from me and a jackpot (interestingly I had forgotten the special jerky treats, but she didn't seem to mind). After a few more times doing the teeter in isolation, Devon successfully sequenced it very confidently in class!

I'm going to focus the rest of June on getting a confident performance on a full height teeter at the three locations where I train. Devon is still crouching low to the board as it tips, but she's confident and her weight shift is forward. I believe in time she'll become even more confident and not lay as low.

When I feel like she's confident in known locations, it will be time to take her performance on the road to less familiar equipment. There are 4-5 locations in neighboring cities and states that offer run thrus, open training or building rental. My goal is to have her teeter performance trial ready by fall. I'll start her with a local CPE trial, followed by AKC trials that offer the FAST class where I can get her on equipment in another run and I can repeat the teeter if it's in the ring.

So, that is the story of Devon's teeter retrain. It's been a long road, but I believe Devon's performance is far more confident that it was because she now knows she controls the board. Victories are always sweeter when they are harder to attain, and I know her first Standard Q after this retrain will be pretty special!