Tuesday, April 14, 2009

One step forward, two steps backward...

Started working on some rear end awareness games in recent weeks (and we've only been doing agility for... how many years now? oh well, better late than never), with the secret hope that it may help Walter's weaves become more consistent. Plus, it's just plain fun. So far we've done walking backward, walking backward up stairs, and rotating around perch with hands on the perch, feet on the floor. Would like to have him walk through a ladder, only problem is I don't have one. Perhaps a visit to the hardware store is called for... I tried shaping him to put a rear foot onto an object on the floor, but it just wasn't happening. It was a LOT easier to shape walking backward up the stairs.

If you have a back feet awareness game you'd like to share, I'd love hear about it.

5 comments:

Elf said...

Our physical therapist has a "ladder" made from PVC. Just uses T connectors that are alternately horizontal for the cross-pieces and vertical for legs to hold the whole thing up off the ground however many inches you want. Maybe 4? 5? 6? inches?

Muttsandaklutz said...

There's an idea. Somehow I can see it ending up costing more than a real ladder that could like actually double as a real ladder, though a PVC one would be fully customizable. I once made a PVC jump which ended up costing almost twice as much as the one I could have bought. Heh.

Elf said...

Those must've been pretty fancy PVC jumps--I just built a couple for about $7 each. See how. I certainly wouldn't build my own ladder from PVC. Way too risky. Just to serve as an exercise aid for the dogs (and/or people) lying flat on the ground.

La complice de Jasmine / Jasmine's Partner In Crime said...

You can always shape Walter into standing in a basket. Start with a big one with low sides and phase into something smaller and smaller as he gets better at it. That's what I'm working on with Jasmine right now as part of our homework with CB. Yep, it's "walking backwards Awareness" and was showed to us during Lynda Orton-Hill's workshop back in November of last year.

Muttsandaklutz said...

Hmmm, I don't think I worded my last comment properly. Rest assured that I definitely was not suggesting that I (or anyone) try to make an actual ladder (like, as in for climbing on) out of PVC! Heh. I'm dog crazy, not plain crazy.

Nice PVC jump recipe there!

Hey that basket idea is a good one. Didn't CB post a video of her BC doing this in a tiny little plastic container or something? Cool. Will give that one a try.