When Able was young I played shaping games with him on a variety of strange surfaces (a baking tray, a tarp, a scrunched-up cardboard box etc) but not on anything that would move a lot. Since then, I’ve noticed outside of training that he is pretty confident with things that move under his feet. His favourite game when he’s in his ex-pen is to tip his water bowl upside down, stand on it with his front paws, and glide across the floor on it.
If he was a less confident puppy I would have kept up the surface training a bit more, but instead I’ve been putting more effort into other challenges. This week I pulled my balance equipment out of the shed and Able had his first play on unstable surfaces.
I have a couple of cheap wobble boards similar to this one, and a couple of FitBones (inflatable balance cushions designed for dogs). The FitBones were more of a vanity purchase on my part – you can find much cheaper inflatable balance cushions from various NZ-based fitness shops which will serve the basic purpose of getting your pup used to uneven surfaces. For a young puppy the objects you use should be minimally inflated and feel quite squishy underfoot. As your puppy gets older and stronger you can increase the inflation level.
Able is already used to putting his feet on stable objects, and he was all over the objects as soon as I plopped them down on the ground. As expected, he has no concerns about the movement underfoot at all, and he was able to put all four paws on the FitBone lengthways after a couple of goes (if you’re using a smaller balance cushion you’ll probably need two for this).
Able prefers to station on things with this two front feet (I have rewarded this a lot when working on pivoting). I spent most of our first training session working across the short side of the FitBone, teaching him cues to “Step” forward into a 2-on/2-off position (with just his rear feet on the object), and then step “Back” to return to his front-foot station position. Stepping back is a big challenge for him at this stage – he can sort-of do it, but I’ll spend some time refining it on a solid object before I try it on a balance cushion again.
This is the first time I’ve worked on the 2-on/2-off rear paw station behaviour with Able. I have decided that I am going to train stopped contacts with him, so this is something that we’ll do more work on in the coming months.
I’ll only be using my balance equipment with Able once a week or so while he’s young (until at least 9 or 10 months, I’d say). There is a tradeoff between working on his balance and strength and getting him comfortable with wobbly surfaces, but minimising the risk of causing an injury if your puppy missteps. I’m quite new to this work (it was quite new and nice last time I had a puppy), so I want to make sure I protect my puppy’s body – and his confidence.