


| If you've not seen Rally, you really should. The novice level is all done ON lead, and you can talk to your dog the entire time. You can use body language to get them to do what you want. The only thing you can't do is use food (or toys), touch the dog or have a tight lead. All you need is a 70 out of 100 to pass. For Kira, this was an easy title, we got it in three straight entries. She got scores of 88, 77 and 93. I'm looking forward to entering the Rally Advanced class. For Greyhound Ruby, Rally was a bit more of a challenge. We entered Rally Novice at the Greyhound National Specialty only days after she was out of season & ended up competing outdoors (which we'd never practiced) and in hotter temperatures than I anticipated. Luckily we qualified anyway and with a score of 85, we took a 2nd place ribbon as well. Then we got her second leg at the Salisbury, Maryland show on Friday November 9, 2007 with a score of 81. Her third leg, on November 30, 2007 could have been a disaster, as we were late getting to the trial, due to a detour at the almost last minute, we ended up going in the ring cold, without even having a chance to look at the course plan or watch anyone else do it, we sight read the course and still managed to qualify with a score of 77. Derby was my third dog to take into the Rally ring & he had only had 9 obedience classes and they were in the fall of 2007; six months prior to our stepping foot in the ring. Since we'd done so little training I really didn't know what to expect, but the little boy did me proud and even did his sits when I asked him to. Again, the trial was outdoors which we had never trained for and in spite of that, he still scored an 80 for his first RN leg. I think his next time in the ring will be at the end of June 2008 at the Rock Creek Kennel Club trial. |