Monday Mischief - Wobbling onto the Wobble Board

Hi all! Today, I am going to share with you a bit about the Wobble Board for dogs, and mainly puppies who are planning a future of agility! Since only recently, Ethel and I have been practising hard with the wobble board and of course, being clever, she's getting the hang of it and has become almost obsessed with running full pelt across the garden towards it, jumping straight onto it, and jumping back towards me, looking at me with shining eyes.

So, the Wobble Board is commonly used to help puppies raise awareness of their bodily movements and to help them with their balancing skills, ready for obstacles like the see-saw in dog agility, if this is a wanted activity when they are old enough.

You use it by generally holding the wobble board on your lap and encouraging your puppy onto it. Start gradually by praising for any steps closer to getting fully onto the board. Then gently move the board around so that its 'wobbling under your control, thus making your puppy balance so he/she does not fall. If your puppy gets spooked and jumps off, its fully advisable to go back a step with confidence building.

Start by controlling the wobble yourself first.

Build up like this at your pup's pace and soon, you will be able to use the board like a mat - send your puppy onto it with a verbal cue and she shall do just that, sitting in the middle and letting the board wobble freely, balancing herself. This takes TIME, TIME and TIME again however!

Interact with your puppy - make it fun and build up, working together.

This is a very beneficial piece of kit for agility puppies to work on - alongside many other possible puppy foundation exercises to try.

Remember, everything strengthens that bond between you two!!

Oh, and we couldn't possibly leave Earl out… He juts had to have a go!

And now for the mischievous bit, which comes as part of Monday Mischief…

OK. So whilst we were 'wobbling along', shall I put it, I was once again encouraging Ethel onto a wobble board, now with less of my control, however still most. She dived onto the board confidently as before, however this time, grabbed my tasty treats in which I was holding in my hand to help her along at the time, and grabbed it straight out, swallowing it whole and spinning round to fly simply back off the board and onto the ground where she proceeded to lick her lips with glee, wagging her bum!!

Got your treat!! And now I'm off! Woooooho!!!

So plenty of puppy mischief to keep us all occupied in our household lately…!!

We're happy to be participating in the Monday Mischief Blog Hop hosted by Snoopy's Dogblog, Alfie's Blog, and My Brown Newfies - thanks again, guys!