Clean Run Magazine - August 2007 - 43

ring during that time, but for the most part his performance continued to deteriorate both in competition and in practice. The only change I noticed at home was that he was no longer interested in wrestling with the other dogs and spent more time on the couch, which I simply attributed to maturity. After about a year, I finally saw some intermittent lameness. It was slight and very occasional, but it was my first clue that Rebound might have something more than just a training issue. I compiled a medical and behavioral history and, along with Rebound and my training journal, visited a series of veterinarians, chiropractors, and canine physical therapists. It took several months, many examinations, and a lot of blood work to pinpoint the problem. I am not a veterinarian or medical professional, but the journey has been enlightening and I have learned a lot along the way. Thorough blood tests can uncover many different diseases that not only will have an effect on the behavior of a performance dog, but also can be life-threatening if left untreated. Following are some examples of diseases that can affect the health and performance of our agility dogs. © MATTALLISONPHOTOGRAPYHY.COM Is It a Training Problem or Is It Physical? By Tracy Sklenar Hypothyroidism Rusty, an Australian Shepherd owned by long-time agility enthusiast Kent Mahan, began his career as a fast, consistent performer. As a team, they enjoyed many successes, including an 8th-place finish in the USDAA Grand Prix Nationals Finals. When Rusty was about four years old, Kent began to see a drop-off in his speed (his course times increased by about 5 seconds) as well as some intermittent lameness. Kent said that while he noticed both things, he never thought they might be connected. Gary Visintainer, a veterinarian and fellow agility competitor, suggested that Kent test Rusty for hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the thyroid produces insufficient amounts of thyroid hormones, causing a variety of physical and behavioral problems. According to Dr. W. Jean Dodds, worldrenowned expert on hypothyroidism in dogs, hypothyroidism is “the most common endocrine disorder of dogs.”1 The classic signs of hypothyroidism, such as weight gain, coat changes, and lethargy, do not appear until “more than 75% of the gland 43 When agility dogs slow down, act stressed, avoid obstacles or leave the ring, we often look for answers in our training program. Perhaps there has been a low rate of reinforcement, or the dog does not understand what we are asking him to do in competition. Maybe the distractions are overwhelming, or the dog lacks motivation for the game. Sometimes, though, the answer is not to be found in training—it is only uncovered after a systematic and thorough medical workup. Many medical problems can affect our dogs’ performance that are first seen (or only seen) on the agility field. Starting the Journey I began to look for underlying causes of behavior changes after my 4year-old Rat Terrier, Rebound, began to exhibit some strange behaviors in the agility ring. He began his career as a focused and motivated partner who had plenty of enthusiasm for the game. In the spring of 2005, however, things began to change: he was slower in the ring and started missing weave pole entries. This happened on and off for a year, and I tried hard to fix the problem by working on motivation, retraining the weave poles, and giving him some time off. He had some successes in the August 07 | Clean Run

Clean Run Magazine - August 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - August 2007