It turned out that the paw pad wasn't the problem, Zoe dislocated her toe and had to be on crate rest for a week. We took things a little slow coming back, and we are ready for our next Discdogathon next week :) I'm also super happy with how her obedience trainin gis coming along. Heeling is slowly improving, and her retrieves are looking really nice, both on the flat and over the high jump. Our biggest challenge has been making it through a front for 10+ seconds before I actually take the dumbell. We're probably going to attempt a run through or two in the next few months, and I'll probably start her trialing in Novice in the spring. Boomer has been on the back burner for the past few months, but he has resumed his agility and obedience training and is making huge strides. His chronic bar knocking dissapeared with some conditioning and a vacation from actual agility. Now we just have to work on our contacts and weaves and he can start trialing :) Zoe is entered for a few agility trials this winter and I'd really like to pick up our AX and AXJ by the end of 2012. My goals for her next year are: fun obedience, MACh, Discdogathon Worlds, and the Junior Invitational (agility, obedience, or both.) We are resuming our Utility training and I'm planning on picking up my scent articles at the IX Classic this year. I think I'm going to incorporate her previous scent detection work into the discrimination training before I try anything more "traditional".
Happy tails!
