Today was Lucy's first time on the KK9 teeter, which is quite different from other ones she's been on in that it's made of lightweight aluminum. Anyway, after warming up I took her to it as the last of a little sequence and she was on the hesitant side, but completed it with no urging from me. Ran to the setup area for some super duper treats. Did it several more times and she showed increased confidence, no hesitation. Later on, I moved it to another area of the field and it happened that now she was near the fence when taking it, looking out onto a busy scene with construction machinery and kids playing (how's that for an odd combination of distractions). The first time, she hopped off before it started to tilt. I said nothing, let her wander around for a second and then encouraged her to try it again. This time she succeeded; party time as before, and she was fine on it for the rest of the session.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You are so lucky your teeter recovery has been a quick one. It's been nearly 2 years since a bad teeter scare, and Lilly still won't do a full-sized teeter.
We too lost our dogwalk for awhile, but my trainer had me climb up on it (I'm not very big) and call her to me ... to prove it was safe.
One thing we did do, however, was change the structure of my verbal cue for each. For dog walk, I just say "Walk it." But, for the teeter, I say her name first: "Lilly, Teeter." That helps her know which one is which, I guess, because they do look alike on approach.
I'm sorry to hear Lilly's teeter recovery is taking longer than hoped. But when she does get it back, imagine how great it will feel. I guess I am very lucky indeed and I'll kick myself *real* hard if I let Lucy go ripping up a teeter again as if she thinks it's the dogwalk.
Post a Comment