teeter is a problem

I don't have much else to add that others haven't but just want to say don' t give up. My blue girl Ember had the same issue with the teeter. Didn't like the bang or the movement. I kept working on it and finally got her to do it. I worked on it for a couple years before I got her out into competition. She started at 1.5yr and I just showed her this summer at 5yr. She had Q every time she was out until she got hurt running in the yard. She'll never have the fastest teeter I accept that but she does it and doesn't bale off and thats huge:smile2:. Once she is healed up she'll be back.

Don't give up!
 
I would also suggest taking your dog to an animal physio (or vet chiro) and getting his back checked. Tully was refusing the seesaw for quite a while - and refusing the dog walk if she had done the seesaw. Since I took her to the physio and had her back worked on she has had no probs. Turns out her sore thoracic spine was making it difficult for her to tip the seesaw so she started seeing it as a scary thing that was making her sore. She was also refusing jumps at flyball for the same reason.
 
I just returned from seminar with Susanne Clothier where she received similar question about sheltie who refused to do agility, her issues were different but equaled to the same context... Susanne gave pretty unexpected answer- do not do agility... just because you want your dog to have fun, your definiton of fun might not be dog's definition of fun...
She aslo added it all depends on the dog, situation and the problem but she sees it waay to often when owners trying to push dog's limits...
that got me thinking... when it is right thing to quit?
I am not saying that you should quit, just mentioning that if your pup is unhappy about single thing like teeter movement- that is skill that could possibly be taught even if you have to get a board inside of your living room on the soup can and let your pup play on it...
you are the best judge what is your dog is telling you... just because every sheltie owner does agility does not mean your dog has to... maybe your dog would love tracking or freestyle dancing...
 
k9kreationz said:
I don't think anyone asked, so I'm going to.....

What EXACTLY is your dog afraid of? The actual equipment? The height? The noise? The movement? Etc?

Koji is also a "sensitive" dog.
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Your situation with Koji sounds similar to my dog. I thought my dog was afraid of heights but as I mentioned he actually likes the dogwalk and A frame which are higher. I know he's not crazy about the bang from the teeter but I think he's getting used to it. I think it's the movement, he gets part way up the teeter with the trainer holding it so it won't tip and he starts looking around, down at the ground and refuses to budge. Treats at this point have no interest for him at all and unfortunately my dog does not like the canned cheese. The trainer feels he's over thinking it. It's been a 2 steps forward, 1 step back kind of thing training him.

I think if you could get Koji to do it maybe I can get Shadow to do it too. He wouldn't go in the tunnel for the longest time, one day in class it just clicked and we couldn't keep him out of it, he'd run through it to the end, stare out at me and run back through, it looked like, "see what I can do!" Everyone was laughing that day. I didn't even scold him for not doing the sequence of obstacles because I was so pleased he finally did the tunnel.

He's the exact opposite of my last dog, so it's been a real learning curve for me. Lately I wonder am I torturing this dog or making him more self-confident? I'd say up to now, I've been helping him build self-confidence, he's much better in new situations, he now stands beside me instead of hiding behind me. He seems to warm up to new people faster too. Maybe it's age doing that but I'd like to think taking him places and new experiences are helping. At least people no longer ask me if he was abused, that's an improvement. He came from an ideal situation so it always sounded awful to hear people think he was neglected or abused.

I'll keep trying and thank you everyone for all the suggestions, it seems I still have many options that I haven't tried. :winkgrin:
 
therwilBbarkng said:
Your situation with Koji sounds similar to my dog. I thought my dog was afraid of heights but as I mentioned he actually likes the dogwalk and A frame which are higher. I know he's not crazy about the bang from the teeter but I think he's getting used to it. I think it's the movement, he gets part way up the teeter with the trainer holding it so it won't tip and he starts looking around, down at the ground and refuses to budge. Treats at this point have no interest for him at all and unfortunately my dog does not like the canned cheese. The trainer feels he's over thinking it. It's been a 2 steps forward, 1 step back kind of thing training him.


:
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if the dog normally likes and would love the treat but at certain point of dog walk/ a frame refuses treats- watch carefully- your pup might go into pink zone of over arousal/ too much stress where teaching is not helpful anymore... When it is too much for the pup they shut down and you can not go any further....
It is pretty individual but often if you have a regular chowhound who loves its treats and then you put your pup in situation where pup's eyes glaze over and treats mean nothing- no good, back off, find the edge where your pup is still capable of learning and do very very slow steps forward.... maybe you need a week or month to be spend just sitting on non moving teeter...
 
SheltieChe said:
if the dog normally likes and would love the treat but at certain point of dog walk/ a frame refuses treats- watch carefully- your pup might go into pink zone of over arousal/ too much stress where teaching is not helpful anymore... When it is too much for the pup they shut down and you can not go any further....
It is pretty individual but often if you have a regular chowhound who loves its treats and then you put your pup in situation where pup's eyes glaze over and treats mean nothing- no good, back off, find the edge where your pup is still capable of learning and do very very slow steps forward.... maybe you need a week or month to be spend just sitting on non moving teeter...
Click to expand...

Yep, exactly what I was thinking
it sounds like TOO MUCH, too fast to me.
If you go over that threshold where he won't take treats that is the point that you should stop and start at the beginning.
I would reinforce just rewarding a contact at the end, do not let him even walk up... only practice the contact at the end til you get sick of it, lol (I get the feeling I will be knowing that, lol)
 
I'd have to agree with the others, it sounds like it was too much for him. Well, this is assuming he's a treat kind of dog. I know Miko isn't, so teaching him agility was hard when his "treat" was to chase down a toy (i.e. with food, you can kinda lure them if needed). If he is a treat type of dog, then it's too much. Time to go back to square one. I can find out how my trainers taught Koji to be okay with the movement. I know she didn't work too much with a buja board. But then, Koji is massively food motivated. So all I needed was some great treats (at that point, I had to use hot dogs).

Don't get discouraged. It took Koji a lot of private lessons to get the teeter. Heck, took him a month of private lessons (about 4-5) to get the tunnel and love it. And when I mean private lessons, I mean that my trainer worked with him alone for 30 mins (I wasn't there). So, think of how much that time is for us non-trainers. Yikes.

The person who wrote about how you know when it's time to quit, I think that's a good point. The reason I didn't stop was because Koji loved to run and do jumps and tunnels. I worked slowly with everything else, and now he seems to love it all (okay, jumps more than anything else). I think you can tell if your dog dislikes agility. I can say that Miko did agility FOR ME. He wasn't that into it, but wanted to please me, so he did it. It's one reason I didn't continue it. His joy was catching balls/frisbees, definitely not obedience nor agility.

And lastly, don't forget you always have NADAC if Shadow never gets the teeter. Also, in CPE Level 1, they don't have the teeter. You have options if you want to trial. Just not USDAA, AKC, or higher levels of CPE. NADAC is a good choice considering where you live, so again, check it out if you want to compete before the teeter is solid.

p.s. I love when dogs finally get things and want to show you. It's so adorably fun to watch!!
 
teeter update

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone. I've decided to hang in there and keep trying, Shadow really does seem to enjoy agility other than the teeter. This week in class he actually stepped on the board on his own and walked slowly toward the center, he wasn't too thrilled with the board tipping however he did walk toward the end for a treat. We could only get him to do this once but it's an improvement for him so I'll take what little bit I can get for now. I really think he wants to do this, he's just unsure.
 
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