Layla and the teeter-totter

I'm not much of an agility person but when I took some classes they had a wobble board to introduce the teeter totter and some people used a teeter totter they made at home with the pivot point very low to the ground.  Look on youtube.  I bet there are a lot of helpful videos of how to overcome a dog's fear of the teeter. 

I agree with Jackie, I would not work her on a full teeter-totter until she understands the concept of pressing it down.  Never let the dog jump off the obstacle, it's dangerous and encourages bad habits.  I would look into a wobble board or some sort of mini-teeter closer to the ground to introduce the sensation of going over the fulcrum and pressing it down.  You'll also want to desensitize her to the sound of it slamming into the ground.

ETA: If she is otherwise ready to compete you can do CPE Level 1.  There are no weaves and no teeter.

 Good for you, Hooray Layla!

 Willy and I LOVE Agility! He has class tonight.

For the teeter, first our instructor only uses it outdoors, inside, it bags and echos when it hits the ground, and that noise scares some dogs.  Doesn't seem like this is Layla's issue, though.

Keep her on the leash.  Have a small food bowl - the visual is important.  Put in 5 to 8 small treats.  Stay right next to her as she enters the teeter.  At the point where she stops, place the bowl down about 3 inches in front of her.  Do not lure her; which means, do not move the bowl.  Let her reach it, eat and empty it.  Slide the bowl about 5 inches, add more treats and repeat.  This is easiest to do with a second person, who already has treats in each hand, so you don't lose time filling the bowl.  You always stand next to her, facing the end of the board.  Don't turn and face her, and of course don't face back to where she came from.  When she reaches the end, a small pile of treats on the ground just off the board (this helps train your contacts, she should not be getting all 4 paws off to eat this last pile of treats).  Do that several times, extending her reach to the bowl. 

In 3 to 5 repetitions, you should be able to do away with the bowl and have her eating the treats on the floor at the end -- all this time she is still on leash and you are staying right next to her.  You may only do this twice, then let someone else do a course run.   Then run her and end at the teeter, attaching the leash and finishing as above.

 We have 2 teeters in class; one is adjustable, and would be set lower for introduction to the teeter classes.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the responses!  I think I will try the course with no weaves or teeter first, though she is progressing FAST on the weaves that I am hoping I don't have to waste her "weave-ability".  She only occasionally skips poles and we have all 12 in line now.  I bought a small set of weaves and we practice at home.  She was pretty clever on picking that up!

I do have a wobble board that I created myself and she has progressed wonderfully on it, she will run across it and smack it down with her paws like crazy for me to reward her with her ball.  I was hoping her overcoming her fear of it, the feeling of it moving, and it's noise would translate to the teeter, but so far no luck.  I do think now that I have allowed her to develop a bit of a bad habit with jumping off the teeter half-way up.   She is also quite happy to push down the end of the teeter with her paws, hoping for a treat.

I will try the food dish idea, it shouldn't be too hard if I already have treats in my treat-pouch, we practice on Saturdays at a local boarding facility that offers an open agility time then, they have a much smaller teeter for training and I will try that then.  Our teacher said I was also facing her too much, and I should face the direction she is going.  She also said Layla was playing me a bit, LOL, which would not be the first time.  She's smart and spoiled.

I need to keep in mind how far this little dog has come and work on patience.  When we had our flooring replaced she almost got to the point where she wouldn't get off the couch, she was on the verge of demanding to be carried everywhere.  It took a lot of work to get her to climb stairs again.  I'm glad to have stuck it out with agility, at first I thought it just wasn't going to work because of her fears, but seeing other dogs do things seemed to make her want to have at it, that was the way she got over her fear of the dog walk and she now whizzes right across it!  I'm so proud of her. 

Thanks!  I will work more with the wobble board and the food dish moved in increments.  We've got a couple of weeks since we don't have class next week (our teacher has an agility competition she's taking her dog to).  The other things we are to work on won't be too difficult for Layla to pick up.

organictroll

 She is also quite happy to push down the end of the teeter with her paws, hoping for a treat.

 She also said Layla was playing me a bit, LOL, which would not be the first time.  She's smart and spoiled.

, she was on the verge of demanding to be carried everywhere. 

Ahahahaa, she and my Willy would get along well together!  He "thinks" he knows what to do to get a treat and gives that a try, ha ha haaa.  Aren't they funny?  Love having them as a part of life!

 How is she doing now?  I just found this thread and so I thought I'd toss in my two cents, since we did it in a different method that worked really well for our girl.

1. We started with what our trainer called "The bang game."  Basically, a jump stantion was put under one side so there was only a few inches between the end of the teeter and the ground. The dog would have to jump up onto the teeter (facing the down direction) and come to the end in classic 2on/2off posture.  Once the dog was doing that comfortably, the teeter got raised.  Eventually the dog was jumping up a foot or more to bang the teeter down and then going into proper position.

2. From there, we moved on to holding the teeter and having the dog jump up on it (facing the down direction).  We'd count 1-2-3 and then say their target word (touch, target, etc.) and release the teeter to fall with the dog on it.  We started low and worked our way up.  The goal here is for the dog to realize that once you get to "touch/target" they need to rock back because the teeter is going to fall out from under them.

3. Once they were rocking back properly from a decent height on the teeter (we did it from about where the teeter was at the halfway point, so a good distance to fall down yet), we would have them run up the teeter and tip it themselves.  As it tipped, we'd catch it partway, do the "1-2-3-touch" thing again and then drop it.  The goal here was to get the dog to tip it but not tip it all the way, which they may not be ready for.  We started with catching it at the halfway point and eventually moved on to catching it further and further down as the dog got comfortable.

4. Then FINALLY, we allowed the dog to run the full teeter.  By this point they SHOULD have been rocking back properly and really only have to drop it just a bit more than where it was being caught last.

It was slow, it took forever, but my girl is running a full teeter now and I never ever thought she would.  

crysania

my girl is running a full teeter now and I never ever thought she would. 

And that is because she is the MOST BEAUTIFUL BIG BLACK GIRL DOG  I ever saw So of course she is a very smart BBGD!  We really need some new pictures!  

 Oh gosh I have a ton of new photos.  I just got back from vacation and took a lot of photos of Dahlia and the other dogs who went with us.  SO MANY PHOTOS.  I'm not even sure which ones to post.  I took 1100 photos over two days.

But in all seriousness, Dahlia was a really noise sensitive dog who didn't like things moving under her feet, won't swim, etc.  And now she's ok with the teeter and even seems to enjoy it.   So I figure our instructor must be doing something right!