It wasn't especially hard to teach Baby Trevor to do the teeter. I have a very nice AgilityWorks teeter in my back yard, and we spent the winter of 2007-2008 working through all the foundation exercises, like the bang game. When the time was right, we steadily raised the teeter until Trevor was doing it at full height, reliably racing across to touch his target and waiting for his release word. What a dog, heck, what a trainer!
Ta da! We had a teeter. Yup, we had a teeter all right, IN OUR BACK YARD.
The first sign of trouble was when we tried to add the dogwalk to our repertoire. I quickly learned that in Trevor's universe, the teeter and the dogwalk were mutually exclusive. They cannot exist in the same time-space continuum. They're too similar, yet scary in different ways. After weeks of back-chaining I finally got Trevor over the dogwalk -- and he immediately started refusing the teeter.
We then had several weeks of bad winter weather, and our practice suffered. After that, Trevor looked at me in horrified disbelief when I tried to get him to go on the dogwalk. It took me a few months of back-chaining to get Trevor back on it. But at least he was doing the teeter again. Well, until I got him back on the dogwalk, and then the teeter was once again off his list. I'm not even going to talk about the A-Frame in this post. We struggled with that too, but that's a topic for another day. Trevor says "I like jumpers. Jumpers!"
Finally we got to the point that he would do the teeter AND the dogwalk in the same session. We were ready to go to our very first CPE trial at WAG. We met our first competition teeter in the dark indoor arena at WAG. It had spiky burlap bags under it. Trevor got to it and stopped dead. He sniffed the burlap bags. Then he started digging on the side of it. We never got on the teeter that day.
My lab Touki had gone through a teeter refusal phase after she started competing, so I thought I knew exactly what to do with Trevor. More teeter practice, more locations, more positive reinforcement, just get him over the hump, he'll be fine. That's what worked for Touki. But then people started whispering to me that Golden Retrievers are known for being prone to teeter phobia. What, really? Now they tell me!
The discouraging part, as it turned out, was that I would think we'd fixed the problem, only to have it reappear. Every time he refused a teeter at a trial, we would work through it, and I'd think we finally had it licked. Then something else would trigger a refusal, and we'd be back to square one.
I'm writing all of this down because a lot of times after you work through an issue, it's easy to forget the steps you took.
History of Our Teeter Refusals
Here are some of our teeter refusals, the extenuating circumstances, and what we did to work through them. It's worth noting that except for our very first day of CPE, we didn't even attempt to do a Standard course until months later in USDAA.
- WAG CPE. We got our start at WAG. We spent many trial days at WAG working through Trevor's issues with both the AF and the teeter. Here are details about some of the teeter refusals:
- Trevor was uncomfortable in the indoor WAG arena. It was too dark/creepy for him. He was especially uncomfortable on the contacts (whether AF or teeter) going towards the sunny outdoors, with the light shining in his eyes.
- Unfamiliar things in the environment made him uneasy, like the spikey burlap bags they use at WAG to weight things down. On another course, he broke away to run over and look at a burlap bag.
- In our early CPE trials, I was so determined to get him on the teeter that I would try to run him over to it in Jackpot even when it was not in flow. This made the problem much worse, because I was giving him a bad experience. CPE turned out to be a less-than-ideal practice venue since they don't put out the contacts on that many courses, and even when they're there, they're often out of flow.
- What helped:
- Spending lots of time walking him around, "socializing" him to the environment.
- Dedicating certain runs not to Qing, but to getting him on the teeter. I think a key for us was that I "made" him go on the teeter. On Jackpot (and later in AKC FAST), we would take the best flow right out to the teeter. Then I just stood there and worked it until he either got on (big praise! leave ring, get raw meat) or our time was up. I did the same thing with his AF refusals. It's a fine line, because trying to force your dog to do something he's afraid of is counter-productive. But my intuition was that Trevor needed to know from me that it was a non-negotiable part of the job, and that I was confident he could do it.
- Petaluma CPE
- This was another trial where I had the brilliant idea of trying to get Trevor on an out-of-the-way teeter in Jackpot, even though it meant giving him a horrible approach. I finally learned that I could either try to Q in Jackpot, OR I could make practicing the teeter a priority. Not both.
- The other thing I saw in Petaluma was that I was being very sloppy about following my own 2o/2o protocol. Touki has running contacts, so I wasn't used to managing a dog's 2o/2o in trials. On one of the Petaluma courses, I looked back and poor Trevor was holding his teeter contact on the other side of the course. I had forgotten to release him. This wasn't the last time I made this mistake, either. I realized that he was taking the whole thing seriously, and that if I wanted him to feel secure and confident, I had to keep up my end of the bargain too.
- Haute Dawgs USDAA (Dixon)
- By this point, I thought we were safely through our teeter phobia. We'd had many successful trials. Then I inadvertently gave Trevor yet another bad teeter experience. This was on a Gamblers course. The teeter was in the gamble, and it was also the most high point obstacle on course. Many people like me tried to do it back-to-back in the opening. But it was a very flimsy teeter and a windy day, and so many dogs got spooked that after our round, the judge forbid back-to-back teeters. Trevor went over it once and then refused it. He also refused the teeter on the Grand Prix course after that.
- Moral of the story: don't do stupid things!!!! I was so mad at myself for ruining our teeter AGAIN after all our hard work.
- Del Monte AKC (Pleasanton -- 4 day trial)
- This trial was a big deal. It was Trevor's AKC debut, and his first time jumping 24" in competition. Plus I was an emotional wreck going into it, since I had just found out that Trevor had PRA. But I was determined to go through with it.
- Our first course was FAST. The send bonus was a teeter. On Novice! Give me a break, AKC. Really. Anyway, by then I knew better than to attempt it as a distance challenge, but I used it for practice. It was an aluminum AgilityWorks teeter just like the one we use at Diamond Bar. It took me our entire time to get him over it, but I finally did.
- Standard on the first day was a disaster. Trevor got to the 24" pink striped panel jump and refused it. He had never seen a 24" pink striped panel jump before. He wouldn't go over it no matter what I did. On to the teeter. He refused it multiple times and then attempted to lift his leg on it. I cried all the way home, and I cried all the way back on my drive the next day.
- At home after the disastrous first day, I practiced the teeter and 24" panel jump in the back yard. I think the panel jump practice was especially key. It took many iterations, starting at a lower height and working up, to get him to go over it at 24". Never underestimate how anything that looks different or suspicious to a dog can push him out of his comfort zone.
- I didn't want to run Trevor in Std the next day, but Moe made me. He did the panel jump and the teeter. We Qed. He was balky on the teeter during this trial, but we Qed on the 3 remaining days for our NA title.
- SDTC AKC (Rancho Murieta)
- This refusal really confounded me, and inspired a flurry of blog posts as I tried to understand it and work through it:
- Rancho Murieta SDTC Trial, Dec. 5-7, 2008
- Teeter Musings -- 12-10-08
- Mystery Solved! 12-11-08
- Trevor and Temple Grandin, Part 1 -- 12-13-08
- The main thing I learned from this experience is how sensitive Trevor is to nuances in the environment. The weekend before in Rancho Murieta, he had Qed on all his Std runs. At SDTC, he Qed on NONE of his Std runs, and he refused the teeter twice--in spite of having a fun match there Friday night, where we did nothing but practice the teeter.
- At Rancho Murieta a few weeks later, Trevor once again did the teeter on all his runs. Read about it in Rancho Murieta TRACS trial, 12-27-08 to 12-30-08.
I learned a lot going through this experience with Trevor. The main thing I learned is that it's futile to get frustrated. You have to try to see things from the dog's perspective.
I'm a wuss and a control freak. You'll never catch me sky diving or bungee jumping. Trevor is a wuss and a control freak too. He's not crazy about the contacts. When he starts his own agility organization, it's not going to have contacts. Actually, he's planning to call his agility organization "Splash Dogs," and it's going to have a dock and a giant pool. He needs to feel comfortable and secure to do the contacts. There are many, many things that can push him out of his comfort zone and make him decide not to jump out of the plane, so to speak.
Here are some of the many things I've learned along the way:
- In training, you want to give your dog every possible picture. Rachel Sanders' DVD "Bridging the Gap Between Training and Competition" is deceptively simple but invaluable. You think your dog knows this stuff. Nope, he doesn't, not if you haven't explicitly trained it.
- One thing to include in training and class is to have someone impersonate the judge. Trevor finds the presence of the judge unnerving, especially if the judge is standing rightby a contact or running up on it.
- Have a good protocol for working through teeter refusals. In practice, never lure the dog over the teeter. If your dog puts his paws on the teeter and stops, hold your ground. Don't pull him off and start over. Keep talking him through it, trying to get him to go across. If he does, big party! Major jackpot. Trevor's ball is his most high value reward, so that's what I primarily use. But we use a lot of raw meat too.
- My biggest challenge with Trevor is trying to find the right balance between babysitting and pushing the envelope. If I run way ahead on the dogwalk or teeter in competition, I am asking for a refusal (or on the DW, he is likely to stop on the descent and take the opportunity to look around, especially if the judge is nearby). The more I stay parallel and connected, the higher our success will be. I also still hold his contacts for a few seconds before releasing him, to emphasize that I am following the protocol. Needless to say, this eats up a lot of time. So I am trying to push the envelope:
- Doing the Rachel exercises in practice.
- Running ahead to my next handling position in practice when he's in his 2o/2o, going back to treat, running back to my handling position, then releasing him. This is a Moe thing--very important part of training.
- Doing some faster releases in practice from a position ahead of him
- Bringing back his targets in practice. This really helps him to hold his correct position (i.e., not turn towards me) even when I do a front cross, move lateral, etc. Bringing back his targets in practice has helped a lot--he's faster, more confident, and more precise on his contacts.
- Be careful at trials
- Never do the problem obstacle out of flow. i.e., don't think "we're going to finish our points in Jackpot and then run over and do that teeter before they sound the buzzer." If you're using the run to practice the obstacle, don't try to accomplish anything else.
- Really try to minimize bad approaches when you're in the training phase. I remember one Fullhouse course where I tried to do a leadout pivot to the AF. It was too much for Trevor at the time, and it lead to a series of AF refusals.
- Praise in the moment during your run when your dog does something you know was hard for him.
- Don't psychologically or physically abandon your dog when he is trying to do something scary.
- If a club uses bad equipment, I try to avoid their trials. I don't need the added problem of Trevor having a bad experience on a flippy teeter. But I will train him on bad teeters to desensitize him. Likewise, I will not run him in the rain. One bad experience can undo a lot of hard work.
- Really look around at trials and try to be aware of things in the environment that your dog may find threatening or unfamiliar. For example, as soon as I saw the spikey burlap bags under the teeter at WAG, I knew that Trevor was going to have an issue with them. At one of the Rancho Murieta trials last winter they surrounded the rings with black netting. It freaked out some of the dogs. Dogs notice every detail.
- Socialization
- Especially at a new venue, take your dog out and walk him around. Let him check things out.
- Show him the judge and any equipment he might find scary. Use the Control Unleashed "Look at That" exercise.
- Hang out by the ring with your dog while other dogs run.
- Think about how you're going to handle every contact during your walkthrough. This is a Moe thing. With a young dog, you don't want to immediately start doing quick releases on every contact, because you risk losing your 2o/2o behavior. On the other hand, you don't want to err on the side of babysitting every contact forever, because that will kill your time. So you try to mix it up. You might do a quick release on one of the contacts and hold your 2o/2o on one of the others. You figure out where you're going to praise the dog, where you're going to run ahead, where you're going to be lateral, etc. It's never all or nothing. You're trying to move your dog's performance forward in small increments.
- Practice, practice, practice. Go to fun matches and different classes, and practice in different locations. Every success is a deposit in the bank account, as Sandy Rogers would say. When your dog is in a trial situation, he should have a rolodex of positive experiences to draw from, so that he can be as confident as possible.