Working on the Teeter

I have been working on Cheetah's teeter recently. In trials I am just saying wait, and it is helping, although we got called on a teeter last weekend. I am able to hold up the end of the board and have her run up it I wait til she gets to the end then give her the cookie, and let go of the teeter. She seems to be doing fine with this concept now, but she didn't like it at first. She couldn't understand why the moving board wasn't moving. I will have to get video of this and up load it soon. I am also needing to remind her about her spot. She didn't get called on any, but they were not as low as they should be.

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Four on the Floor...Fix!??!?

As you know, I have been trying out a variety of contact methods in an attempt to come up with a behavior that we both can live with. recently, after I was practicing her 2o/2o behavior at home. I worked her for her dinner, running her over about 10 a-frames and teeters. Later that evening, she came up lame, seeming to favor her left front. So I rested her completely for 48 hours (that was fun) then I brought her to class and just did one run, with no contacts at 16 inches, just to have other people look at her. They thought she looked ok, but I wanted to take it easy with her anyway. That was a wed. class, and I teach on thurs. I usually bring her and work her some after class or use her to demo something, but I didn't want to be tempted to do anything so I didn't even bring her.

Friday we left for a trail, so I didn't do anything with her then. Sat. I ran her and she seemed to move ok, although she jumped her A-frame (so all of that 2o/2o didn't help anyway). I got her massaged afterwards and she said that she was definitely sore, but ok to run tomorrow, and to ice her tonight and give her some rimadyl, and to get a second massage tomorrow. I ran her the next day she seemed fine. She said that she felt some better, but to ice again for a day or two and take it easy with her for a few days. (See Mattiponi Trial)



All of this got me thinking....I already know that if I try to teach her a running a-frame that she looses her mind in the ring. I also know that trying to force a 2o/2o in practice can make her sore, and it still doesn't translate to what I want in the ring. So....am I supposed to not train the a-frame at all?? doesn't seem to be practical.

Then I thought, well I haven't tried 4 on the floor yet, why not?

So I found an old clean run that had an article about training the 4 on the floor (4otf) method, and I read over the steps.

1. I started with a towel on the floor and shaped a down on it.
2. I started calling it "spot"
3. I practiced that for about 4 days then
4. I put it out in front of the bottom of the aframe.
5. I pulled it out about 2 feet from the aframe, because I didn't want her to try to jam her self into position and I didn't want her to leap onto it either. That seemed to be a good compromise.
6. I did some hop -ups with it, saying "spot" and she would usually stop in a 2o/2o, then I would say yes - "spot". She would then go into a down on the towel. I would say yes again to release from that.

Sometimes, she would go down all the way to a down the first time. I just said yes and released. I didn't want to stress her with trying to break the 2o/2o again. I'd done it 3x already.

In class, when I put the towel down, she does a 2o/2o. I started out saying yes and spot again, but somewhere along the way, I just started releasing her to the next obstacle (probably, because I didn't like making it seem like she was doing something wrong).

The next weekend we had our first trial with my new "spot" command. Sat, she did a great run thru, the contact, which I am perfectly happy with ( although I was apparently so happy that I forgot the course. Sunday's was a little jumpy, but it is still a work in progress ( see Cocker Club Trial)



The next trial, was Morgantown, she did really good a-frames there to. I was even able to front cross at the end of the frame. both were really nice run thru the contacts. ( see morgantown trial)



The third trial was Oriole - Aka the kitty litter trial. I did 2 really nice front crosses,and a run straight off, which was a little high. We had 2QQ's that weekend and were 3 for 3 in standard.. that hasn't happened in a while! ( see Oriole Trial)




It should be noted that I also was saying "wait" for the teeter for these last three trials, and they were MUCH better Teeters too!

In class she is still stopping 2o/2o in front of her towel on the word "spot".
It should also be noted that her 2o/2o never had a target or touch word associated with it.

Will this hold up, time will only tell, but I am very pleased with these early results.

Do I need to actually make her stop in the "spot" position in practice or competition? I do not know. Is it a fix....I sure hope so!


Wish me luck and I will keep you posted

TEETER SUCCESS!!!

This weekend we were at the TAG USDAA trial and Miss Cheetah had 6 good Teeters.
(well 5 1/2...the last one of the weekend, was not called, but it was a little lighter than I would like.)

I guess buying a competition teeter for the house must have helped. I hope that doesn't mean that I have to buy a comp A-frame for the house to get my A-frame back on track...Hmmmm!!!

She actually did about half of her A-frames ok too....just not as good as I would like.

Check out the partial teeter montage!

Here is what I've been trying to work on since I last wrote in. I was attempting to make a video of all of the comp teeters that Cheetah has done in the last year. Well, I have them all clipped together, but my stupid movie maker program won't let me publish it. So I can't upload it - grrr! I was able to publish an older version that only had 12 trials worth of the 20 (actually it ended up being 22 trials) So at least you can get some idea of what is going on. The main part that is missing is the progression from Aug to Nov. last year. I now have a competition teeter at the house ( as of 2 weeks ago) and I have been playing with her on it, which of course she is FINE on! I will have to make a video of those teeters so you can see the difference.

"easy tip it?"

Well we were at the Weim. Trial weekend before last, and While I only got 1 QQ for three days, I was very pleased with a possible discovery towards the fixing of Cheetah's teeter thing! On Fri, we had Jumpers first, which was fine, she loves jumpers. Next was FAST, so I laid out my plan and she didn't get credit for her a-frame (even though it really looks like she got it, but that's a different story) So send her back over the aframe on this loop I was taking, then off to do the send ( which she loves ...its weaves - jump, wrap back to the weaves!) then we do the teeter. She comes off the side, no points called, I send her back around to do it again, she does it good, but no points called again ( oh yeah, I forgot to put a jump in between) then I leave. Well I thought that I had a lot of time to doddle around and I did, because they never set the buzzer to go off. So they let me re-run it. Which was great practice, but I didn't get enough points in the first one do Q anyway, so it didn't really matter. This time, she gets her a-frame and came closer on the teeter, but the buzzer went off, so I don't know if she would have gotten credit or not, but at least we had lots of practice.

Std is next, and it is jump, jump, turn, teeter. So I do a LOP, and she does a great teeter. We Q, got 1st, QQ #11 for MACH 2, everything is great.

Sat - Fast is first again, and she doesn't get the chance to do the teeter, but got the send and Q'd. Then in std, she comes off the side again. People asked if I was putting pressure on her and crowding her, but she came off into me.

Jumpers was good!

Sunday, I got to thinking, that the reason she got the teeter on Fri, was because she was not going as fast yet. ( it was obstacle 3, remember) SO, I got to thinking for some reason about when she was in open and couldn't get fast weave entries so save her soul, so I said "easy weave" for probably a few months, and she would add a stride and collect enough for her entry. So I thought, why not try that on the teeter? So I made a FAST plan that was all about the teeter, and if we happened to get the send, so be it. I planned to say "easy tip it" and then make a little loop and come back by the teeter and do it again. Yes, I will get whistled off and not allowed to do any other obstacles, but it would be my last one anyway, so perfect. I did my plan (she had TOO MUCH send on the send, oh well.) but got 2 perfect "easy tip its" and I was happy.

Std - the teeter was after a long line of jumps and coming out of a tunnel with a FC in just before, I said "easy tip it" and it was perfect! ( we NQ'd on the aframe contact, but I can accept THAT better than the teeter problem.)

I don't know that it will always work, and I am still trying to do some things to help her get her teeter mojo back, but if I have do say "easy tip-it" for the rest of her career, so be it. I will be posting a teeter montage soon.

See Ya!

Good Teeter Training!

I have been going around the last couple of weeks, trying to get Cheetah on some different Teeters. A Lynchburg at the end of June we were warned by the judge that we needed to watch that teeter. ( Like I didn't know it was close, but I'm glad she was nice enough not to call it.) Then at Blue Ridge we missed 3 QQ's by the teeter. @%$)@#$#)%!! So I go to two different peoples houses, sign up for a different set of classes just to get her on different teeters. How do you think they were....they are all perfectly fine! I am ordering a comp teeter for my house, just so I can have another different teeter, but it is beyond me what her deal acutally is. I will upload those two trials ASAP.