His FINAL FLING!!!

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Thus tonight I thought I'd tape Seeker "one more time" exhibiting his OCD for the Teeter. It's well documented that Border Collies can become easily obsessed with "ANYTHING". For instance the "crack dog" who's unable to go for walks in town as he can't get past the cracks in the side walks. Or the "Microphone" dog who's not able to function if a microphone is hanging from the ceiling. Thus, in order for Seeker to avoid becoming the "Teeter" dog, we must now put an end to this behavior. Poor little dog!!!

Actually, it's a testament to a clicker. Or NOT??? Seeker really didn't care for the teeter too much. He wasn't much for jumping on the up side or racing across. I'm not sure if he didn't like the noise, the movement or both? So we started clicking the "bang". Over the winter months, with the low teeter in our living room he got pretty good at running across it, in his own "style". This style consisted of making sure one hind foot was safely on the ground at all times. Picture someone skateboarding and using their "kicking" leg. Yes, that's Seeker on the teeter. I would try to tell him that someday he'd need to get rid of the training wheels. But I don't think he was listening.

So Spring came (kind of) and the teeter moved outside. We needed to set it up to full height for class and so it was time to (as Liz would say) "Suck it up or Blow it out".

I took Seeker out with some treats and a clicker. I'd hold the board and let him jump on it and bang it down. Click/Treat. He thought this was pretty fun and soon would do it without any assistance from me. After a couple days he'd race out to the teeter and wait for me to catch up. Soon he didn't even wait for me to get there to start. Thus, the obsession began.

He will literally do this for hours. Within a few minutes he has saliva flying. He gets in a Border Collie "trance" and there's nothing that will get his attention. He's just focused on jumping on and off that board. It's 24" at the base with a 12' board on it. How high does he have to jump to make it to the top of the board? I have NO IDEA. All I know is he'd better NOT be knocking bars in competition. G

So as they say. All good things must come to an end. So.....sadly, good-bye to those free wheeling days with the teeter. Seeker will be a better agility dog for it.

This is at actual speed....no tricks with mirrors or other funny business. You'll notice at the very beginning Cougar is in the lower left corner. That lasts about 3 seconds or after the first drop of the teeter board. Even he knows it's NOT safe!!