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Comment by Jane on September 26, 2011 at 10:59pm

I have a question - does the leash have to be 6' for competition? I was under the impression from the rules online that it just had to be loose enough to be slack while the dog heels. We had our first class tonight and the trainer apparently felt the need to make a huge deal out me using a shorter leash, despite the fact that the other two dogs had on a halti and an easy walk harness. Arg. Not a big fan of this instructor so far.

Comment by Patty & Frodo and Crystal CWCs on September 22, 2011 at 2:47pm

Have fun, CorGeek! Even when they bomb out (Crystal nearly bombed out herself, squeaked by with a 78 one of the three legs of RN, but she DID Q!), it's still a fun experience.

Gail - that is just fantastic!!!! Glad you and Ashton are doing so well! You might want to look into one of the other venues too such as APDT, since those are also supposed to be a lot of fun....

Comment by Gail and Ashton on September 22, 2011 at 2:31pm

Best of luck at your first trial CorGeek! You'll do great!

 

I do have a wonderful brag about my little boy Ashton. Earlier this month he competed at the regional corgi specialty and took 1st place in Rally Excellent! The very next day he continued to make his mommy and daddy proud by getting another 1st place at the Nisqually Kennel Club show, which was his title run! As the judge handed out ribbons she told my hubby she expects to see the two of them in the obedience ring since Ashton is such a wonderful obedience dog. Needless to say my hubby was on cloud 9. We had registered for the second day at the all breed show as an insurance run but didn't need it. So he went in for that run just as fun. He was a bit laggy that third day which we weren't surprised about but he still did us proud with a second place finish. Absolutely amazing weekend of trialing. To finish off his RE title with two first place finishes! Yeah! Now the long grind to his RAE title...

Comment by CorGeek on September 22, 2011 at 8:38am

Oliver and I have registered for our first rally event! I'm just hoping for a good learning experience.

Comment by Patty & Frodo and Crystal CWCs on July 28, 2011 at 12:20pm

I'd love to do APDT Rally, and really, this group is open to anyone doing any form of Rally! I just have only found AKC around this area. I'd live to try others, though..... Not sure Crystal would like to (she prefers K9 Nosework) but Frodo likes Rally!

Comment by Connie, Abby & PJ on July 27, 2011 at 9:03pm

Sounds like most of you are doing AKC. We have started APDT Rally, but may move to AKC later on. Abby has her Rally Puppy Level title and just earned her Level 1 title and working on Champion Level 1. We are mostly self-taught, but Level 2 signs are a little more difficult to figure out. We have to travel quite a ways to find a trainer for both Rally and Agility - nothing near us!

Comment by CorGeek on May 19, 2011 at 3:42pm

LOL. The biggest hurdle we have is listening. When he's paying attention to me, Oliver is brilliant. But there are so many things that are more interesting than me out there. I've found that hot dogs help "up" my Q factor.

Comment by Gail and Ashton on May 13, 2011 at 1:46pm

Welcome all to the Rally O group! Nice to see some activity in here! LOL I do agree with practicing basic obedience with focus on heeling. Pretty much everything you do will deal with heeling and as you progress through the levels this will become much more important since the work is done off lead and you will loose points for a dog who is too far away/behind/ahead. Practice in different locations with lots of different distractions. We've been to trials with a gun club next door, working airport across the way, horse shows, busy roads with lots of traffic, non-stop barking dogs, rain, sun, wind, aroma of delicious foods to the smells of "dairy air" from cows and sheep, tiny indoor rings to wide open outdoor venues... you just never know what might be at a trial to distract/scare your dog so try to plan ahead and prepare them for anything and everything.

If you can find a "Fun Match" it's a great way to have a trial like practice without hurting the pocketbook. Usually they are around $5 or $6 and you get a trial like setting with a judge and everything. It's a great way to see what you need to work on or in our case we went to one before moving into Advanced to see what he would do off lead. One corgi ran out of the ring and took herself for a nice frap around the trial grounds... bad yeah, but much easier to take when you only paid $5 vs. $28 for a trial!

Brag: Ashton got his first leg in Rally Excellent and placed second. He was such a trooper since the dog he had to honor (Irish Wolfhound) was not focused at all and was either moving very slowly, in the wrong direction or not at all. Ashton broke his sit stay after 6 and a half minutes. Poof! 10 points gone. We are so proud of him for sitting that long. It was painfully long compared to most honor exercises. Ash NQ'd the second day because of all things, he lazily jumped the broad jump and hit it with this back foot. Ashton is an agility dog at heart so seeing him hit the jump was so disappointing. Up to and beyond that point including honor was a perfect run. It was kind of funny, when he hit that board you could hear everyone in the crowd let out a disappointed sigh. LOL My hubby and I think he did it as a protest for his long sit stay the day before. :P

After Ashton gets his RE we are going to venture into the Beginning Novice Obedience ring... should be an adventure! :D

Comment by Patty & Frodo and Crystal CWCs on May 12, 2011 at 10:12pm

Rally is much fun! both of mine have their RN, but only one is close-ish to being ready for RA. My blue merle girl doesn't care much about heeling in general (that was her worst part) and off-leash definitely doesn't interest her! We're still working on it.

Jane - yes, basic obedience is the best. Work on lots and lots of heeling. There's not much to learn specifically for rally novice except the signs and things like which side of the sign to be on and that sort of thing. Rally advanced gets a bit trickier. Teach your dog (dogs? doing both?) a come to front and sit on command, and both a finish straight to the left (heel) and a finish around the right of you to the left back to heel position. Concentrate on a good heel position and a loose-leash heel. Also work on a down on command, and the down-stay and sit-stay. go around obstacles when you can, making sure your dog stays next to you. That sort of thing.  :)  Also make sure to practice these commands anywhere - on grass, indoors in pet stores, etc. - so they are ready for both indoor and outdoor courses.

 

You can also get the regs:  http://www.akc.org/pdfs/about/board_minutes/Rally_Regulations.pdf  Read both the obedience AND the rally regs, since if there's something not covered specifically under rally, the judges use the obedience rules. I will read the regs even before I take them out before each show. The signs are all in there too, so even if you don't start practicing them, you can read through and get a feel for them. Feel free to ask questions!!! That's how we learn  :)

Comment by Jane on May 12, 2011 at 8:52pm

Hey there rally folks! I've been looking into doing rally but the class options around here are really limited, and the next one isn't being offered until the fall. Is there anything specifically we should work on to prepare? I assume a lot of healing and basic obedience?  I'd like to do more but I don't want to teach anything "wrong" and then have a hard time re-teaching it correctly, if that makes sense!

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