Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Team Delilah

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I wanted to share something really amazing that happened at Delilah (and my) training class last Tuesday.

The class is held in a smallish size gymnasium.  I’m very grateful the class is small because it gives us a bit of room to spread out and not be too close to another dog.

It was our next to the last class and Jackie, our instructor had a little Rally ring set up.  Just to give people a small taste of what Rally is all about.

Before we had the opportunity to do Rally, Jackie stated she was going to test us with our leave it command.  (Coincidentally this is also the class where I had my light bulb moment of everything I’ve been doing wrong, but that is a post for another day.)

I watched as Jackie, armed with a squeaky toy and a handful of treats approached each team in turn.  For whatever reason Delilah and I were last.  I stood facing Delilah, waiting anxiously,  worried that I would fail Delilah and myself.

Finally it was our turn.  From the corner of my eye I saw Jackie approaching from my right, I can’t tell you how close she actually came but I would guess it was within three to four feet.

I had Delilah focused on me, by having a treat in my right hand, with my right fore-finger resting on the tip of my nose.  Our gaze was intent, there is no other way to describe it, I didn’t dare look away.

Squeak.

Delilah’s head shifted slightly to her left.

Eck!  Look, I said.

Snap her head turned back to me.

Squeak, squeak.

Look. That’s right, stay focused on me.  Good girl, you’re doing fantastic.

I heard the handful of treats drop, but neither Delilah nor I looked, or even flinched.

Our eyes were locked and Team Delilah rocked.

Here Here!

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Since I’m back to work I’ve got to either 1) walk the dogs on lunch or 2) walk them after work.  I really do prefer to walk them on lunch, but when it’s this hot, I opt for after work.

It was still hot yesterday but thank God the humidity broke.  There’s nothing like walking in 90 degree heat with 90% humidity.  It feels like you went swimming with all your clothes on and you’re just waiting for them to dry.

My pants seem to have a mind of their own and that’s to sag as far down as they possibly can.  I seriously considered putting a pair of boxers on so they could hang over the top.

You don’t believe that do you?

Good because I would never consider that.

Where was I?  Oh yes, the walk.

I normally let Sampson and Delilah pick our walk, I figure it’s their walk too so why shouldn’t they go where they want?  I keep a pretty good eye on them and if it looks like one of them has really committed to a certain path, I gently encourage the other one to go in the same direction.

What really surprises me is how frequently they go to the same trails, all kinds of possibilities yet they still follow the same paths.  I think they are checking their pee mail and waiting to see if they will run into some friends.

We were getting on towards the end of our walk last night when I saw what I thought was a deer running through the trees off to my left.  It caught everyone’s attention and I shouted to Sampson, “No, don’t do it.”  Thankfully he followed instructions and stopped what he was doing.

When I looked up, Bruno (who the dogs know well) was standing staring at us from about 25 yards away.

I shortened Delilah’s leash and told Sampson NO.

He took off after Bruno.

Delilah whined and pulled but I held fast.

Bruno is a big dog, but he’s also a big baby.  As soon as Sampson took off after him, Bruno took off too.

Sampson chased Bruno around a really large rock and I saw Delilah gear up to go and I knew I was a gonner.  So I dropped the leash.

I figured it’s better to chase her through the woods, than get pulled along the trail…on my face.

The dogs all converged at the rock, sniffing each other and I clapped my hands and called, Here, Here, come on let’s go.

What do you suppose happened?

Yup, she came right back to me.  I did the happy dance, gave her some yummy liverwurst, praised and petted her and we finished our walk.

I don’t think I am ready to take her off-leash but it’s nice to know I can give her a small bit of freedom.

Rally Thursday

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Rally is an AKC dog sport, it is basically an obedience sport, but the ‘commands’ are located at little stations throughout the Rally ring.   It  is also the sport I stewarded at last November.

There are three Rally divisions, Novice, Advanced and Excellent.  It is possible for a dog to title in all three divisions and your dog does NOT have to be a pure-bred in order to compete.

Ribbons are awarded to the top three dogs.  The highest score is 100, but the dogs are also timed.  In case of two dogs achieving the same score, the time is factored in to determine the winner.  Any dog who achieves a score of 70 or better  achieves a ‘leg’ once the dog has three ‘legs’ the dog has titled in that particular Rally division.

At an AKC Rally match, there is only one dog in the ring at a time, unless there is an ‘honor’ dog.

In the advanced Rally ring,  a ‘Honor Dog’ is expected to lie at the edge of the ring and not move until the dog working the course has finished and the Steward in charge advises it is safe to release the dog.   Normally the honor dog, is the dog who was in the ring before the current dog.  If a dog is honoring, their score is not complete until the steward advises the scorekeeper that the dog passed or failed.  The dog working the course is ‘scored’ based upon their performance in the ring.

Stewarding an advanced AKC Rally match is one of the more difficult rings to run, especially if there is an honor dog.  Not only are the Stewards required to insure all jumps are the correct height for each dog, the Stewards are also responsible for making sure each competitor is up and ready to go when their number is called.

When I Stewarded there were three of us. Besides the official scorekeeper, there was my friend Ann who made sure competitors were up and ready to go, and held their leash while they were in the ring.  I ran the stop watch and monitored the Honor Dog.   In between dogs we had to check that the jumps were the correct height and in some instances we had to make adjustments.

I can tell you it was a lot of work, and you see some crazy people with their dogs. 🙂

I like the idea of the Rally and have actually considered working Delilah toward a title.

If you would like to learn more about Rally, you can check out the AKC  link here.

Hubby and I have been on vacation all week.  Even though I’ve been walking the dogs every morning I couldn’t help but perk my ears up when Sara mentioned she was going to have a drop-in Rally class on Thursday evening.

Normally on a night that Delilah and I have training class I force gently encourage Hubby to take Sampson for a walk.  Thursday night I asked if he and Sampson would like to check out the Rally Class.

Not quite as sophisticated as the AKC commands, but it got the job done!

Sampson doesn’t really care for obedience or agility classes but I think it’s good to keep him on his ‘game.’  Of course Hubby didn’t want a little baggy full of treats, so someone kept going right back to mommy when he was done.

There was eight dogs in the class, Sara had one person start at station one, then once they were at station three, the next person started.  In this manner we got all dogs thru fairly quickly.  After two runs thru, Sara changed the course.

Sampson and his dad.

Sampson kept looking over to me as if to say,  please help me mom, you know I don’t like these classes.

I want to say we did about four different courses, it was a nice way to work on our obedience without being in a traditional classroom setting.

After class was over, Sara cut Sampson and Delilah’s nails.

Stop fighting it Sampson. 🙂

Both Sampson and Delilah are so laid back when they get their nails clipped that Hubby joked, take it easy Sampson don’t get so stressed out.

Delilah is not so fond of lying down and leaving herself vulnerable.

Have you ever tried a competitive sport with your dog?  Would you?

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