scared of the seesaw

[LinzHenz]

Henry has bee doing agility club for about a year now. He's jumping medium and doing really well with most things apart from the seesaw. We started off slow on the lead, then me holding his collar, then progressed to him going on his own about 2 months ago. Then he just decided to launch off the seesaw and scared himself i think. Since then he's refused to go on without me holding his collar. It also transferred to the dog walk for a time but have got that back to being fast again by not touching the seesaw for a couple of weeks. We had a 121 lesson at the weekend and did some work on the seesaw, holding it up so there was no tilt and getting him used to going straight to the end without stopping at the tipping point. Trouble is I think, reflecting back on the session, that his response of lying down on the end of the seesaw and sort of clinging onto it with his paws wrapped round the edge was quite fearful rather than him being relaxed and lying down enjoying it.

Anyone else have trouble with the seesaw and if so, how did you get over it? Have you any suggestions of things i could try at home? He's really fearless of everything apart from the seesaw 

Thanks

[Karma]

We've only just started with the see saw, and Honey isn't keen.
What the trainer is doing is wedging it with a table, so she can run up it and then get off on to the table.... she can also get on the table and run down the see saw... we started with no movement at all in the see saw, and gradually built up so it was moving a few inches, which is as far as we've got.

We tried other methods of holding the see saw first, but she wasn't keen on that... this way she is getting used to the equipment without needing us to hold her or the see saw, which seems to help her confidence... 

[LinzHenz]

thanks Karma, that's a really interesting idea with the table. i was lifting him off when he got to the top (after lots of fuss) but it was making him stop shorter as he got the idea about what was happening. i see why he might be wary of it but then he jumps onto waist height fallen logs and stright off them out in the fields without batting an eyelid!