Teeter Training.....101

This article is actually for my friend JIggy, she's lives out East, well East of me anyway. So, you can read on, or stop. G

There are a lot of different ways to teach a teeter. But there are two that I've found I like. The first I got from the Ann Braue Puppy Seminar, the second came from a Lori Michael's Seminar. I don't know who first "invented it" if you will, but there you have the "credits". I'm pretty sure NO ONE wants the credits for putting on a leash and forcing them over, so I'll skip that explanation. G

I believe one of the most important things about training a teeter is that the dog truly understands that THEY control the movement of the board. So you want to take this in small steps and build their confidence. You should have a dog that really wants to go before you move to the next step.

Let me remind you that EVERY TIME you CLICK you MUST Treat. Even if it was a mistake. (': Also, I'm going to assume your dog will already walk across a flat plank on the ground.


Teeter Training - Ann Braue

Start with 2 – 24” tables and the teeter in-between the tables. (whole teeter, base and all)

Running from one table to the other (will not be moving at all) and tug on the 24” table. Work on restrained recalls. If they fall off the table, just wait for them to jump back on and resume the game.

DO NOT move on until you LOVE the speed and intensity that you have.
They must be moving as fast as they can and not have any stiff “nervous” body language.

Then move one table down to 20” and the other remains at 24”. This now becomes a one directional exercise. It feels like a teeter. Add 2/2 at this point. Do this by litter plugging food/toy in their mouth as they come to the second table. Stay at each new height until they LOVE IT!! Never move on until full confidence is achieved.

Then move to 16”, 12”, 8” and ground. The one end is still at 24”.

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Teeter Training - Lori Michaels

This is what I've been using for a couple years and I really like this approach.

First you're going to want your dog to get use to the noise. So have someone bang the teeter board and every time it bangs, click and treat your dog. If the noise doesn't bother your dog, GREAT, move closer. If they don't like it, then don't move closer until they are comfortable. No need to rush!

I start with a low teeter (8" tall) or the board with just the bar works GREAT!!!! We do not want to scare them. At first they get a click/treat for just approaching the board, then for putting a foot on it, then for making it move to the ground. I need to stress here that every dog moves at a different pace, so do not ask for too much too soon. At this time you can lure them onto the board - putting the food in their face and bring them onto the board. You will however want to wean from that as soon as possible. They should offer a behavior, click and then treat (reward).

You can load them for both sides and the front - up side of the board so they are willing to jump on no matter where the handler is. Here's an example of one of the puppies in class. Sporty does have a tab on because this class consists of 7 other puppies and handlers with cookies, so he may go visit. Notice however that the handler does NOT use this to force Sporty to do it. He is more than willing to do it on his own. Good BOY!!





The next step is going to be to walk your puppy across the board. (I'd prefer no leash or tab here as I don't want them to get caught on something) You'll want to click and treat each and EVERY TIME the board drops. So when they jump on the Up side they will get a treat and then another almost right away because when the go past the apex it will drop again. Going across the down side they will only get one click and treat as it only drops once. Make sense?

So here again you see Sporty walking across the board, getting clicked and treated at each "bang". After the first time across you can see the handler needs to catch him before the dog goes back on his own. This is EXACTLY what we want. We want them to WANT TO!!





The next step you move to is running with your dog back and forth across the board. This is tricky as you also want to click/treat at the bang. Once they are comfortable with that, you move to the big board and START ALL OVER!!
Let me stress that you DO NOT want to take them right across the big board and you will want to support it's drop a few times once they are crossing it.

To jump on the full board you're going to want to bring the high end down to 1/2 the height and get them comfortable jumping on. You can let it move up a bit and then again have them jump on. The idea again is to let them know that they control the board. Depending on your dog's jumping ability and size you may have them jumping on down in the colored area closer to the apex. This is fine.

I believe that the dog needs to learn how to adjust himself in order to understand how the teeter operates. I believe they need to be responsible for controlling the board vs. the handler telling the to "wait" and handler guessing when the board is going to drop. (As you know, every teeter is different) I believe it's their part of that 50/50 team work that's required to be successful.