Flying Poodles

Teeter Training Report…

Yep. Another one.

Debbie and I worked out two more things to add to the teeter training basket. (Summary below.)

Now that Dancer is more comfortable with the tip, we put the teeter against a 24″ table, so that she walked down from the table, tipped the teeter from approximately level, and continued on down. This meant she couldn’t see when it was going to tip. Surprisingly, after a few tries, this didn’t faze her a bit, and by the end of the session–about 10 repeats–she was running to the table, and running right down the teeter.

Debbie suggested that instead of cheerleading her with words, I try clapping. Wow! She likes it when I clap.

Then, over the weekend (at ClickerExpo) Ken Ramirez demonstrated how to make clapping into a conditioned reinforcer by clap-clap-clap/click/treat. I did that a bunch over the weekend, then today I tried clap-clap-clap on the teeter, then click, then treat. Did that a bunch of times.

Oh my! I have a teeter! She runs into it, strides over it as I clap, goes on. I put the teeter into a sequence, and she was unfazed.

So here is the summary. Note that steps are cyclic; I do low and high teeters and easy and difficult steps all the time. I lower the teeter and play the bang it! game with each new teeter.

Click/treat for looking at teeter (reward away from teeter)
C/t for walking toward teeter (reward away)
C/t for putting a paw on teeter (reward away)
C/t for ignoring the bang (at a distance)
C/t for ignoring the bang (moving closer)
C/t for walking over non-moving wedged teeter at lowest setting
C/t for walking over infinitesimally moving teeter at lowest setting
C/t for banging teeter at lowest setting
C/t for banging teeter at higher settings (until she is pulling it down from level with enthusiasm)
C/t for walking over teeter at progressively higher settings (lifted off if she stops moving)
C/t for running to teeter and putting both paws on it
C/t for running to teeter and banging it down
C/t for walking down teeter from table
C/Throw tennis ball for walking across teeter without stopping at lowest setting
C/Throw for more and more speed across teeter without stopping at lowest setting
C/Throw for higher settings and not hesitating