I shot some video of Strummer's teeter mostly to show Team Small Dog what my big fast dog looks like doing a 'wait for the board to tip then run down' performance. I'm not a fan of the 'run to the end and ride it down' for the big fast dogs because I think it's harder on their bodies and can get super ugly when the dog is running high at a competition. If you've got a 3-4 lb toy dog, well, that's a whole 'nuther story and you may have no choice if you want to finish your run during daylight hours. There was a wee dog (10-12 lbs I'd guess, jumps 12" in USDAA Champ. division) at the DOCNA trial this past weekend that had a teeter performance similar to Strummer's first rep in the video, ie she hunkered down and waited for the board to drop before moving on and I'd say it was a pretty quick performance. This dog is awesome, has an ADCH, NATCH and probably at least one MACH if not more.
There are 4 reps shown in the video and he gets progressively farther down the board with each rep with the last one being unacceptable. The second rep is probably the ideal performance for competition but the first one is probably best for his body. No, I don't have any scientific studies to prove it, I'm going by the simple laws of physics here. On the last rep where he runs to the bottom of the board while it's in the air you can see how the teeter whip could be a problem if his timing was different and the board smacked him while he was leaving. The whole performance looks so much more out of control compared to the others. There's some board whip on the first rep where he's waiting at the tip point but it doesn't effect him all that much since he's holding still and so high up on the board. The board is settled by the time he runs off the end.
I think the most interesting thing from the video is to see the way drilling effects Strum. He starts out perfect and degenerates to unacceptable in just 4 reps. Makes me wonder about all the drilling I've been doing on the dogwalk and the crazy inconsistent mix of success and failure I've been getting from session to session. Yesterday I ran him on a Grand Prix course and his dogwalk was beautiful, even with a soft turn to some jumps. I stopped and praised the heck out of that let me tell you, I almost felt like a real dog trainer when I saw him do that. And that was the only dogwalk we did, I didn't want to press my luck with drilling him. I think if there are too many reps of something he gets overstimulated and his brain leaves the building. I've been doing very short sessions on his plank/table in the backyard and if his first 3 reps are successful I stop. I'm going to keep experimenting with these super short sessions. I've been laying off the dogwalk training at the field for the past couple of weeks because I felt like I needed a sanity break and it was taking away too much training time from other things that needed work. We've got another one day of DOCNA this weekend and one day of a non-titling USDAA match so we'll see how the contacts hold up. And if the stinker does a Superman over the A-frame I'll be stopping and letting him know about, you betcha.
Thanks! This is super interesting to see! It helped a lot to have it in slow motion. It is a big difference from his first ones to the last ones. This has been the hot topic lately at the agilitynerd.com and on the cleanrun email list.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess it's just teaching them to stop up further, and wait for the slam, then run down? A whole new world to consider.
Thanks! This is super interesting to see! It helped a lot to have it in slow motion. It is a big difference from his first ones to the last ones. This has been the hot topic lately at the agilitynerd.com and on the cleanrun email list.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess it's just teaching them to stop up further, and wait for the slam, then run down? A whole new world to consider.
I saw agility nerd's post and yeah that's why I don't like 2 on/2 off for the teeter. I've seen loads of dogs get their butts smacked by the board on its way back up. I tried looking over at clean run but yikes there are a million posts. Maybe one day I'll have time.
ReplyDeleteThinking about it I didn't directly teach any of the dogs a specific place to stop before the tip. Cody was taught to stop at the end with all 4 paws on and so in order to accomplish that he had to let the board tip down all the way before he ran to the end.
Lola was scared of the teeter and never wanted to run to the end and except for the beginning when the teeter was almost flat I didn't encourage her to. She was most comfortable waiting for the tip so that's what I let her do and that's what I rewarded.
When Strummer learned the teeter he also naturally started out waiting for the tip so I rewarded that and didn't reward him for running to the end. I also trained a 4 on stop at the end that I faded with a quick release. Knowing that he may have to stop also causes him to throw his weight back and wait for that tip.
Since there's such a variance between teeters I don't focus on a particular place on the teeter and make them stop there. Instead I simply reward any attempt at throwing weight back and waiting for the tip and give an 'oops, try again' for any running to the end. But I've got big dogs so finding the exact tip point isn't that important, I'm not sure how critical it is for a wee dog so you may need to experiment and modify your criteria.
Also since you're dealing with fear issues you may have to play around and see what performance is least scary for your dog. Lola was afraid of the board falling out from under her so tipping it from higher up was less scary for her since she didn't have to fall all that far. If getting smacked by the board at the end is what scared your dog then you might not want to insist on a stop ever, just let him run right off after the tip because that end part of the board is scary.
I just remembered these photos:
ReplyDeletehttp://stoverphotography.eventpictures.com/app/event/viewPictures?eventInstanceId=17888&categoryId=32645&curPage=1
They're from the USDAA trial a couple of weeks ago. You can see the whole progression of Lola's teeter. Note how high up the board she is when it comes to rest. Also watch her expression change from happy to worried as she comes down the board.