Rally seminar

emily · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:18 pm Post subject: Rally seminar

Our club meeting was combined with a rally seminar. It was lots of fun. Scout learned to target today! He picked it up amazingly quick. I don't know how I've been managing obedience without it! I highly recommend rally its just so much fun!

And here are a few pics from the day(cause I'm never without my camera)!

camismom · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:25 am Post subject:

Those pictures are absolutey adorable!! I love the group shot -
How does one get into rally? Do you have a website or something that I can take a look at? I'm thinking about doing something other than just obedience school with mine.

emily · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:55 am Post subject:

Rally is less strict than obedience. Its a comibination of obedience and agility. We tried it for the first time this weekend and we did okay. One big difference though, you can't use any kind of choke collar(like you can in obedience). It has to be flat buckle or martingale.
We managed pretty well though! You can talk to your dog as much as you want though, which is nice as that makes it more fun!

Here's the akc link: http://www.akc.org/events/rally/index.cfm

camismom · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:14 am Post subject:

THanks! I'll take a look - sounds like fun!!

heathr · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:11 pm Post subject:

Emily,
So you can give your dog verbal commands?? What about hand signals?

I have been thinking about getting Riddick involved in something other than obedience because we only have one more obedience class after this one and we will have taken all of them that they offer. I would like to try agility but have to wait uintil Ridd gets a little older and is a little more coordinated (he is still a little clumsy). I have been trying to get into tracking but the only classes I can find in my area are during the day on weekdays, which isn't very condusive for work. I am planning on getting Ridd CGC certified, but he has still a little too much puppy in him and when it comes to meeting another dog he would want to play with them.

piper22705 · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:24 pm Post subject:

the group pictures are awsome emily! i'm thinking of getting piper into agility next month. Looking around for places. There is a place called Canine University in malden so we might go there to check it out.

emily · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:10 pm Post subject:

Heather, You can use both verbal and hand signals as well as encourage your dog along. You can talk the entire time you're on the course. He needs to be on a loose lead or you lose points. And you can't touch him at all. There are 31 command for the novice rally, but only 12-16(I think) are actually set up. So its kind of like an obstacle course and you have to be prepared for anything. The signs are pretty easy to figure out though. And you're allowed to walk the course(without the dog) beforeforehand to get aquainted with it!
Have you looked into any local obedience clubs? They are usually cheaper(for members) and offer all sorts of classes(from beginner, to competition classes). We don't learn a ton of new stuff, but it gives us a nice setting to really practice, work on distractions and fine tune what we already know. And it tires him out mentally, which is nice!

heathr · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:45 am Post subject:

Thanks for the info, Riddick and I tried our first rally class last night. It was great fun and I think that it is something that we will really like. I decided to give him a little break from obed classes, which we have been doing non stop since he was old enough. The only thing that was kind of hard was that it was a drop in class and there were people there who compete at the higher levels so that made it kind of stressful for our first time, but other than that we had a blast. Also the course was set up for a little more advanced dogs. But we managed and I think I am going to try and find an actual class that would give me some pointers and maybe be a little more at our level.