Teeter for Proprioception

"Proprioception: the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement."

I am not interested in competing in Agility with Lily, but I do see value in many of the pieces of agility equipment for proprioception and, in turn, building confidence......and for just plain fun! With that in mind, a year ago I asked Rich to make me a pause table and a set of jumps, which he did.  He also made me a set of weave poles.

I have used both the pause table and the jumps, but except for an afternoon class where Sue taught us the very beginnings of Susan Garrett's 2X2 Weave Pole method, I have not done anything at all with them yet.

Ever since Cathy began setting up Challenge Courses on her tennis court, I have been toying with the idea of building a Teeter.  As with all my other agility type equipment, it has to be both portable and storable.  It has to be light enough that I can carry it and it must be able to be transported in my car....at the same time that Lily is traveling in the car.

Rich and I have used the plans found in Ann Embry's Dog Agility Equipment Construction Instructions in the building of our pieces of equipment.  When it came time for building Lily's Teeter, my wonderful neighbor, Fred, once again came to my rescue and we spent parts of two days putting it together.

Donna builds a Teeter

Eileen's Teeter

Eileen's Teeter is of a different design.  Her board is 1" thick and shorter and the base is adjustable.  Her dogs are smaller and lighter than Lily.

Eileen and Clara teach a lot in these two videos.  I am so hopeful that she will continue to share her clips with me.  Even though we have different goals, Eileen is an experienced agility trainer and competitor and I can learn following her example.

Lily's Teeter

Yet, a different design.  The board on Lily's Teeter is 12"x3/4"x8'.  The base is 16"H and is not adjustable.

Board painted and ready to begin.

The fulcrum is placed on the lower sections of 2 cinder blocks.

Step 1:  Lily's introduction to the new Teeter turns out to be CONTACTS L3 from the original Levels ... with just a little movement of the board.

3

4

The fulcrum is raised to the center brace of the cinder blocks.  At one end of the teeter I have place 3 cinder blocks on their sides covered by a mat to make a raised platform.  This controls the angle of the board as Lily learns to control its downward movement.

Step 2a:  Introduce Lily to the steeper incline.
CRITERIA:  Becoming comfortable.  Placing all 4 paws on the board.  

The platform that modifies the full swing of the Teeter.

I see the need for an interim step - the step that Eileen introduced at the beginning of her second video.

Step 2b:  Teach Lily to hit at the end of the board to bring it down to foot height......WITHOUT slamming it on to her paw.

A good suggestion from Sheila - put pool noodles on the ends of the board to cut down on the noise and to stabilize the touch down on the cement!  I just happened to have 2 noodle pieces of the exact size stored in the dog closet!

Interestingly, Lily has a nice straight entry from the left, not so good from the right.  So we will work on entries and exits for a while.  But I am happy with the size and thickness of the board.  It appears that it will work just fine for our purposes.

CONSTRUCTION NOTE:  When Fred and I were building the base, we glued one of the 2 tees that hold the fulcrum.  Mistake!  This greatly inhibits my ability to remove the board and take the teeter on the road.  Maybe Fred will have a better solution.  In the interim, I loosened the screws and used a mallet to slide the metal bar far enough to one side to permit me to place the second tee, then used the mallet to move the bar back through into the tee.  With minor adjustment to the position of the bar, the problem has been resolved.

Back to the training drawing board.  Sue clarified the physics of the teeter to me and I learned that the teeter is designed to be one-way.  Lily is to ONLY enter the teeter from the resting side.

3/21

I am now using the teeter in its "real" base which has significantly increased the angle of the board.  Consequently, I have once again added the platform to the down side.  In addition to "gentling" the exit angle it will also (I hope) help extinguish the two-way behavior that I had trained.  I plan to get 2 bags of water softener salt as Sue suggested, and use them to further stabilize the base.

I am following Eileen's advice and not progressing beyond 2a with this higher incline.  Lily and I have done 3 short sessions this morning and I am THRILLED beyond measure.  This is exactly what I hoped to gain from this equipment - building confidence; building body awareness;  developing balance.

Step 2a:  Introduce Lily to the steeper incline.
CRITERIA:  Becoming comfortable.  Placing all 4 paws on the board.  

3 AM

• staying at 2a until Lily is comfortable and consistently stepping on the board 
• 2 feet
• all 4
• staying on the down side of the fulcrum
• one time Lily's rear legs slipped off and she slid backwards down to the bottom!
• 2b
• walking comfortably onto the board up to the fulcrum
• jumping off and returning
• working on a clean entry
• 2c
• luring Lily to tip the board and walk to the end
• the cinder block platform is in place
• staying at 2c until Lily can comfortably and consistently walk the teeter and exit off the platform
• continuing to work on a clean entry
• working on extinguishing the "2-way" entry'

NOTE: Have placed two 40# bags of water softener salt on the bottom crossbars for stabilization

3/24

• continuing with slowly walking the plank
• platform still in place
• this is such a good "thinking" exercise for Lily
• "Where are my hind legs?"
• she carefully tips the board and walks to the end

3/25

• confidence and back legs go hand in hand
• today was the day
• confidence and speed also go hand in hand and that causes a structural malfunction with the teeter

With confidence comes speed

Teeter Malfunction

(back to the drawing board)

NOTE:  Fred suggested that we drill holes into the tee connector and add screws.  Then, when I want to transport the teeter or store it, we still have the option to remove the board.

• The screws have been added
• This afternoon, in her haste to reach the treats at the end, Lily's left front paw slipped and got caught between the board and the base.  Not good.  This is the purpose of this piece of equipment - learning to think in stimulating environments.
• I have to remember to go slowly.

3/28

Yesterday, when Wendi arrived, Lily was too excited to think on the teeter and all 4 feet disconnected from Lily's brain.  Was it Wendi?  Was it food?  Whatever it was - there was no hint of self control!

Today just Lily and I spent 5 minutes at the teeter.  Calm and quiet prevailed.  Controlled entries and exits.  "Slow is fast".

More Hind End Awareness

With the sun shining again, we have been out and about enjoying ourselves.  That means relaxed outings w/o training and w/o treats.

It also mean small jaunts to bleachers in Tidelands and on base.  We haven't worked the bleachers in quite a while and what little work we have done recently shows a need for more hind end awareness on Lily's part.

#1  I'm not luring, but the treats are in my hand.  This reminds me of when Dani introduced Lily to the agility walk almost the same way!  It was the wrong thing to do then and it's the wrong thing to do now.   Although we're on base and near the road and the ground squirrel field is beside us.....the leash comes off, too.

#2   Let's begin again.  Much better.  Lily knows the drill from the Contact Board and "walk on".  As long as she watches where she is going, as long as I reward at the end she can easily jump onto the bleacher and walk it.  I asked for the Sit too soon.

#3  After a few more "runs" to build Lily's confidence, I again ask for a Sit and Lily is able.  The video shows me that she is once again backing into her sit.  Lily Braces nicely from the Sit; I wait a second or two before cueing her to go forward and then ask for Lily to Wait.  Whenever she turns toward me, her balance falters.

#4  Sit is still a problem.

#5  This jump onto the bleacher was confident and successful.

Publish Post

#6  I wonder what Sue would see in this video.  Handler error?  Treat delivery?  Where is Lily's focus?  Is this a case of "patting your head and rubbing your stomach"?

Enough of this for today.  Let's go to the Marina for some fun!

Lily's "mini" Challenge Course

Proprioception (n): 1. Awareness of the body’s position in space, 2. Relating to stimuli connected with the position and movement of the body

Mick made Lily's first contact board.  It is 8" wide and 10' long.  It sits on cross struts that raise it 3" above the ground.  Mick coated the surface with textured paint.

Once it had served its purpose training Contacts, the original contact board morphed into a "Turn on the light" training device, with 2 switches battery connected to the light at the top, and was used horizontally.  

It has been catching dust in the garage for over a year now.

"Aha!" I thought.  "Let's put it to use again."

Here is Mini Challenge Course 1 then.

• walk on (both directions)
• walk through the hoop
• Sit (altho Lily had one leg resting on the carpet)

Keep tuned!  More to come.......  

The "mini" is growing!  This board is 8" wide.  Lily's Balance Beam in the yard is only 6.5" wide.  That inch and a half is HUGE as far as Lily is concerned.  I believe it will be too narrow for Sits and Downs.  The concrete blocks that hold the Balance Beam 8" above the ground can also serve as stepping stones to conquer.

Hind End Awareness

Proprioception (n): 1. Awareness of the body’s position in space, 2. Relating to stimuli connected with the position and movement of the body




At Cathy's we use a range of equipment and activities to build the confidence of the dogs, connection with the handler, loose leash walking skills (on leash and off), co-ordination and balance, and body awareness skills.

Today Lily and I went to Tidelands Park to do some simple back end awareness exercises.


The two "boards" below were almost identical in size, but not in surface texture.  The metal surface proved to be quite slippery for Lily.  We will return!