So, what has happened? Well it is with a heavy heart that I announce the agility retirement of Split. He is only four. He has had an on again off again limp. We tried rest, stretching, etc, but it seemed to come back. So, I took him to the orthopedic surgeon to get things checked out. Split broke his leg when he was nine months old. Now arthritis is setting in and causing discomfort. The surgeon was not optimistic about agility. She felt it was too hard on him.
What now? Well I will work on rehabing him and getting him physically back to a better place. I will get a second opinion just to make sure we are treating the right thing. Then...I will take it day by day. Maybe he can dabble in agility, we will see.
What is up with Tangle? We got out to the agility field today for the first time in weeks (mostly due to weather). We were both ready for some serious play!!!! We worked on the running contacts first. I was curious to see what a break would do. All I can say is that latent learning was our friend. I have yet to review the video, but I believe he was spot on!! Got all the contacts, and never once looked back at me. He was driving forward very nicely. Next we reviewed his 'feet' performance. This is what I am calling his end contact behavior. He had been exposed to several confusing method of teaching this over the last couple of weeks. Mostly class was teaching it different. So today, he had no idea what I was asking. Clearly confused. So, I got out the clicker, went back to square one and shaped the behavior again. I think it took about five clicks and he was on board again. Reinforcing, never be afraid take some steps backward and review. I am betting tomorrow he will be spot on.
I didn't train Tip today. The mud got too bad and let me be honest I didn't feel like cleaning two dogs. Sha will get her turn tomorrow before the ground un-freezes.
