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Practiced getting onto an elevated board without movement. Then added a tiny bit of tip. It’s kind of a crappy cold day so just stick to rewarding with peanut butter and a ball. She was pretty happy with the ball. So I should just keep adding tip with the elevated board?
The four wheeler is an old thing we use to haul stuff around our yard (max speed probably like 2 mph ha) and she usually follows it around when we have it out. Nothing dangerous. I can try both methods but the logistics of two dogs out might be too much for me. (Station training and loose leash walking have never been high on my training priority list – I’m very impatient LOL).
I have practiced just getting onto the board with no movement but I could definitely revisit it. I used milk crates with no movement so she could at least learn how to hop up on an elevated board. Honestly, the most exciting thing for her is probably herding/chasing the 4-wheeler or herding her brother. She does love her MM too. Food is probably above toys but she will work for the toy. Most toys are pretty equal.
The past few days we just worked building back confidence. We only did the elevator game for one rep about twice a day. Then tonight we went to our lesson. The lesson really helped her build confidence again. We warmed up with a board on a peanut which she loves. Then we started very low on the bang game and gradually increased. Then we moved onto a uphill game with some modifications so we could get more reps without her thinking and LOTS of rewards. On the uphill, when she got to the tip point, the board was pushed down for her. Then we added the manners minder (again a big favorite) to the downhill portion of the teeter. She could get off the teeter whichever way she felt like it, but if she went down the board we rewarded her getting off the board with the MM. That was great because she was exiting the board exactly how she had when she got spooked and she wasn’t thinking about it cause she was so excited about the MM. Although we did work on a lot tonight, she really didn’t seemed worried and seemed very excited to do all the things.
Okay I will focus on the one-hit wonders on the elevator game. We have our lesson Thursday. Would you suggest doing any rebound game work? Or just let that be for a while and not focus on it?
Here is this afternoon’s session of just the bang game. She was very tentative in this session so I didn’t do anything else except that. She started pulling the board down with her front feet and then jumping on or turning around onto it without actually jumping onto it which is how she has always kind of defaulted to. I’m not sure how to discourage that because it actually seems to make the board rebound back which is what she scared of so it’s kind of a double-edged sword.
Ok so I’ve been getting the games mixed up on what ones I should be fading the target on. So downhill game I should be fading out the target and elevator game we can still have a target? And just for her, going backwards a bit, we keep the target for the bang game but no treat there. Correct? For this game I actually was playing with a toy on that first rep and released to it but I cut it out of the video. But then definitely wasn’t sure what to do when she got worried. So once we build back up to downhills cut out the target, reward her end position, then release to toy. And if she gets spooked, release to thrown toy anyway. I think not having the target there will help me remember that better and not get myself worried about the situation.
So this was not a good session. We started on the downhill track to end position. I did one rep where we left off. She did great on that. Then I moved the board to parallel. She definitely got spooked. But I just tried it again without making a big deal and she really didn’t like the tip point at parallel. I stopped the session and we did something completely different and not teeter related. I guess where should I go from this session?
We did the elevator game today and worked up to some added extra height. She was unsure when I was holding the board with one hand (because I was shaking with it) but that disappeared when I held it with two hands and it became a lot more stable. I know you said to fade the target and add it after she is in 2o2o but I definitely an need extra set of hands to do that so I just figured I’d leave the target there for now until I get better at the mechanics and maybe figure out a similar high value treat instead of her fav PB. Also sorry about the camera angle. I thought it was going to be better and it actually was worse.
We did the downhill track to end position today. I wasn’t sure how she would do with the added height since she really doesn’t seem to care for the table to table game and it was getting pretty similar to that. I was so happy with how how this session went.
Also tried the elevator game for the first time today. It took me a few tries to get the steps/mechanics down but she really had no problem with this one. She was already looking down anticipating getting into her 2o2o. I was actually pretty surprised.
Had my friend help me with the rebound game. She’s still not completely comfortable with it but did much better this session.
We also visited the bang game again and added some height. When I set up right next to the board she steps onto the board often with her front feet to push it down and then adds her back feet. We added the cone and more distance from the teeter to jump into position. She added an extra step into 2o2o but it’s a much more enthusiastic jump into position vs. stepping. Also on the second to last rep, I think I added too much distance/speed for her. The board rebounded and spooked her. She came back and did it fine again. Im kind of kicking myself on that though. Should I change anything in regards to the mechanics?
