Heart Like a Dog

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

What’s Your Rally Cry?

By

A couple of you mentioned in yesterday’s comments that you didn’t know what Rally was.  Since I was a bit unsure about what to write today, I’d thought I’d give an explanation.

This is Rally the way I understand it.  Of course the AKC has many more details on their website.

Almost a year and a half ago, I was a steward at a local high school, you can read about that here.

So what is Rally?

Basically Rally is dog obedience set up on a course with written instructions at each station.

IMG_2357 Simple enough.

The course is set-up by the Ring Judge. You and your dog are a team.  Each team is timed and enters the ring with a perfect score of 100.  The judge will deduct points if you make a mistake.  The timed portion of the event is in case of a tie.  In that case they go to the time and the team that completed the ring the quickest wins.

The rally rings I worked were probably about twenty to thirty feet squared, and the course is set up using left, right and about turns so you are almost walking a path.  The judge determines what commands are requested at what stations.  In the rings I’ve stewarded the commands have been laminated and they are positioned in the stand so as to be easily read.

Some of the commands are very hard.

This sign means do an about turn (turn around and head back the way you came) and then turn right.

Once the judge has set up the course, instructions are given and then you have the opportunity to walk the course without your dog.

Judge Instruction Receiving the Judge’s instructions.
Rally Walk Thru Walking the course.

There are four levels of Rally.

Novice, Advanced, Excellent and Advanced Excellent.  As you can imagine the commands increase in difficulty with each level.  In the upper levels, some of the courses are completed off-leash. In this case the Steward will take your leash and hand it back when you exit the ring.

In those levels, part of the course requirement is for a dog to ‘honor’ another dog.  This simply means your dog will lie in a certain spot and not move while a competitor completes the course.  The Steward at the exit is in charge of the stop watch and keeping an eye on the honor dog to insure the honor is done correctly.

There are two no-no’s that I know of in the ring.

1) Using food, while you can hold your hand a certain way against your body, or point with your fingers, you are not allowed to trick your dog into thinking you have food.  The first Rally I stewarded, a woman came into the ring and her dog sat and she gave the dog a bit of food and the Judge disqualified her on the spot.  She was still allowed to complete the course, but her score did not count.

2) Tags on your dog’s collar. The judge will tell you take it off or you get a DNQ (did not qualify,)

They award blue, white, yellow and red ribbons to the top four teams.

Ribbons

How do I qualify?

In order to qualify and earn a ‘leg’ you need a passing score of 70.  Once you’ve achieved three legs (under at least two different judges) you’ve earned a title!

In the rings I’ve worked, once the judge awards the ribbons they will ask, Who got their first leg?  Who got their second leg?  Who titled?

Akita This team was amazing to watch.

People who work these kinds of dog shows will tell you, Rally is the hardest ring to work and it needs to be run correctly.  In the advanced levels there are sometimes jumps incorporated into the course. When a team signs in they are asked what height their jump needs to be.  It is up to the Stewards to make sure the jump heights are correct for each dog.  A Corgi’s jump height will be different from a Golden Retriever’s.

What’s a Steward?

It is the Steward’s job to make sure all competitors are where they are supposed to be and that the rings run smoothly.

Steward

It can sometimes be a bit stressful (like when a competitor is showing in another ring at the same time) but it is a lot of fun.  My friend Ann and I run a tight Rally ring.  After our first Rally Steward we were told by the Judge that we were the best Stewards she’d ever had.

Have you ever attended a competition show?  Did I clear things up for you or just confuse you?

Does Anybody Rally Know What Time It Is?

By

Delilah and I started a new class.

Rally.

I’ve heard so many people tell me how easily I could Title Delilah in the sport of Rally.  Let me go on the record as saying Delilah could probably Title in Rally, I just wonder if I’m the right person for the job.

I’m not just self-deprecating (VBP.) Have you ever looked at a Rally sign?

                        

     

Those are just a few of the NOVICE signs.

WTF?

The first night of class I stood and stared at the top two for about five minutes trying to figure out just exactly what I was supposed to do.

Delilah was no help, she was raiding the treat bag while I was reading.

Arianne came over to help us out and it took me most of the class to really get it.

We practiced heeling and stopping.  When I’m heeling my dog and I stop, I expect my dog to sit.

And she does, she just sits in such a manner that her body is turned so she’s facing me.  She’s not sitting by my side.

I asked Arianne how to fix that.

IMG_3803 There’s a trick to this folks.

And the trick is this.  Some of us (ME) keep our treats close to our sides because we want a nice close heel with our dogs, which is why Delilah tends to be facing me when I stop.

In order to correct this, when you stop, you actually move your treat hand away from your body, this will automatically correct the sit.

I kid you not.

IMG_3804 Notice how my hand is a good distance from my body.

The other thing I’ve been doing incorrectly is holding the leash in my left hand.  You probably already know this, but humor me for a minute, you actually have better control of your dog with your leash in the opposite hand of the side you are heeling on.

Why?

Because if I’m heeling my dog on the left with the leash in my left hand and my dog decides to lunge, my right hand has a way to go in order to grab the leash.  If my leash is in my right hand and my dog lunges my left hand is already there and can quickly reach out and assist my right hand.

See why I think Delilah is doomed?  I don’t even know the proper way to hold her leash, how can I give her the proper signals and set her up to succeed?

We’re participating in the Vocabulary Building Project blog hop, hosted by Texas, A Cat in New York, Savannah’s Paw Tracks, and Hey It’s Jet Here.

Check out the other participating blogs and see how you can increase your vocabulary.

Author’s Note: The rally photos are taken from a handout I received from my trainer, they are AKC registered and available on their website.

Rally Thursday

By

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?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...