Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Mika's shoulder and Wall-e's training

Mika was popping out of 12 weaves consistently in training last week, so on Sunday I did the soundness test and discovered that she was limping very slightly, putting more weight on her front right leg than her left. Later that day I massaged her left side and found that when I massaged her left shoulder, near the elbow, she tensed up and lifted her head to look at me. "Ouch!" She also didn't want to go up the stairs that evening; she started walking up them (instead of running up like she usually does) and then stopped when she got in the middle and looked at me.

She'll be getting a complete break from agility for a couple of weeks. I'm hoping that it's just a little problem that'll go away after rest and more massage. I'm not going to overreact and think the worst like I did with Wall-e's lameness :) She did seem a bit better yesterday and today.

Today, a couple hours ago, I went to the field to work on Wall-e's dog walk. We're concentrating on the DW now instead of the A-frame because of the easier angle. Last week I back-chained the 2-foot high DW -- he was amazing! -- and today we started back-chaining the full-height DW. I'm using a food-loaded target at the end to build his independence. All 3 reps were great! He's giving as much speed as he's able; hard to get lots of speed when you're just using the down plank.

Then we ran a sequence to practice rear crosses. The first rep went well, but I slipped and fell in the middle of the sequence, haha, so we tried again. The second rep was good too. I just wasn't running fast enough and he didn't know where to go a couple of times.

Afterward, we trained sends to the tunnel.
I should have accelerated more, which would have cued him to extend better. Oh well, I'm learning!

I might post a video of Wall-e's training on the weekend, we'll see :)

6 comments:

  1. I hope Mika feels better soon. Diana

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  2. Sorry to hear about Mika's shoulder - hope it heals quickly! I really admire your ability to not overreact and think the worst (that's so difficult to do, isn't it?)

    Yes, please do post a video of Wall-e's training! Would love to see him driving to his target and running fast on that DW!

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  3. Oh my gosh, hope it is nothing too serious and the rest helps Mikas shoulder ;-(, funny those weaves can really point out any problems cant they? Glad you were ok with your fall....and hope you get to post Wall-E's training video!

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  4. I'm looking forward to a video too! hint hint! ;-) I'm sure the rest will be good for Mika and she'll be good to go in no time.

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  5. Oh, sorry to hear about Mika! I'm sure she'll appreciate the time of and hopefully she'll be back to normal really soon.

    Looking forward to a video of Wall-e's continuing contact training!

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  6. Oh, we hope Mika's shoulder is better now. Can't wait to see the video of Wall-e.

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