Post date: Dec 9, 2008 3:31:47 AM
Since the 2 teeter refusals in Rancho Murieta last weekend, I've had 3 different practice sessions with Trevor. In all of them he has been happy and relaxed on the teeter.
It begs the question of what spooked him at Rancho Murieta last weekend. He had done the teeter fine there the weekend before and Qed on all 3 of his Std runs (1 Open, 2 Exc). Was it a noise, the pile of sandbags under the teeter, the angle or speed of approach, something/someone he saw in the background, the teeter itself? Was it the fact that both of judge Lisa Miller's courses looped around and brought the dog upon the teeter suddenly, with her standing next to it? Or was it the table just beyond the teeter, with the pile of metal legs under it? Trevor seemed nervous about that table. Every time he got on it, he spent a lot of time checking it out and trying to look under it.
He was slightly off on all of Lisa's courses, much better on Dan's. He refused the teeter on both of her Std courses. He sniffed a puddle and almost missed the last jump on her JWW course. He missed a jump on FAST and was balky on the teeter, which once again Lisa was standing next to. Leftover phobia from the day before, or something else? It's hard to say, and hard to know how to address.
Here is the teeter refusal run: http://vimeo.com/2478982
The next day on Dan's course, he was okay on the teeter, despite a challenging approach: http://vimeo.com/2479151
I don't have a video of his Sunday Std run, where he eventually crossed the teeter but got called for a refusal since he spent several seconds standing on it with just his front paws.