Red's Debut in Rally Obedience

The day finally came, and now we are home from our first ever Rally Obedience trial! What a day! My instructor, Michelle, came with me today for moral support, which I was so grateful for. She's the one who encouraged me to get into Rally and competitive obedience, so it was great to have her there for her company, help and support.

The trial started at 11am today, starting with Excellent A & B, then Advanced A & B, then Novice A &B. Based on the number of dogs in each class, we estimated that we would go into the ring around 1:30pm, so we wanted to get there an hour early. We arrived at 12:30pm and discovered that they hadn't even started the Advanced classes yet, and the judge was just getting ready to take a 45 minute break! So the Advanced classes didn't even start til 1:30pm. So we had a lot of time to kill...

When we first got there, I took Red straight to the potty area to do his thing, then went in and sniffed around a bit. We found a place to set up our chairs and drop our stuff. I got a copy of the Novice course map and started to study it a bit. Luckily, all the stations were ones that we had practiced a lot and were confident on. After looking over the course map for a few minutes, I took Red back out to run around on a deserted grassy area for a bit. It was the most beautiful day today! Sunny and in the high 60's - practically unheard of for Halloween in Michigan. So we played outside around for a bit, then went back inside and tried to get him to settle down. Didn't really work - he just couldn't sit still. So after a few minutes of that, I took him back outside and sat in the car with him for about 30 minutes. Red was starting to seem kinda sleepy and calmer now, and it was 1:30pm and I wanted to see the Advanced classes start, so I took him back inside to see if he would sit still any better. Still no - nope, just wouldn't lay down to save his life. So I decided to put him out in the car by himself since he seemed tired but just couldn't relax inside the building. Took him out to the car and went back inside to watch the rest of the Advanced classes. He was out there for a good hour or so. I'd sneak out to look and see if he was standing up in the back seat or laying down - just to make sure he wasn't freaking out in there or anything. Every time I looked I didn't see him, so he must've been laying down.

I wanted to leave him in there until after my walkthrough was over. I walked the course 3 times and was pretty confident. Several people commented that this was the biggest Rally course they've ever seen. I thought it was great though, because it was easy to navigate and the signs weren't so close together to make you confused.

After the walkthrough, I got Red out of the car and amped up my energy in an effort to re-stimulate him after so much down-time. We ran over to the potty area again, and then went back into the building. I grabbed his frisbee and played tug for awhile. Then went into the practice ring and did a few exercises, then came back out and played more tug. I could tell his energy was declining, but he maintained good focus in preparation and during our play session. I rough-housed with him through the entire Novice B class. We were the second team to go in Novice A, and ended up going into the ring around 3:45pm.

After the last Novice B dog left the ring, I took off Red's tag collar, and switched his leash to our shorter trial leash. I removed my treat pouch, but took a big handful of hotdog bits in my hand to feed him while we were waiting for the first Novice A team to finish. He focus was excellent, and I fed him the last tidbit just before we entered the ring.

We walked into the ring, I put him in a sit at my left side, adjusted his collar and my grip on the leash, took a breath, then looked at the judge. The judge said, "Are you ready?", I choked out a "Yes!", then I heard the word "Forward!" and off we went.

I was a little nervous about the Slow Pace since sometimes I go too slow and Red thinks I'm stopping so he starts to go into a sit. But no problem with that this time. When we were along the back fence, he lost some focus, but thankfully stayed with me. I boosted up my energy and my voice and started talking to him more. This made a big difference, especially as we were going into the Serpentine cones. I praised him as we heeled, and didn't have any other focus issues throughout the rest of the course. I was little worried about his right finish-halt, because sometimes he drifts too far ahead and out of position, but it was perfect this time =) Lots of praise for this as we made our way to the middle of the course, then the rest of it was all good from there.

We finished, I vaguely heard clapping, but had no idea what my score would be. I was pretty sure we performed all the stations correctly, but didn't know if I had any minor deductions for anything. Michelle had the biggest grin on her face and said if I didn't have 100, it would be a 99 because it looked perfect from her point of view. And sure enough, they wrote up my score and it was a perfect 100! I was in total shock! I never in a million years would've dreamed we would've got a perfect score on our very first trial! All I cared about was qualifying - so this was just icing on the cake. Red was allowed to dip his face into the treat pouch and eat the rest of the hotdog bits as a jackpot. I usually hold our jackpots til we get back to the car, but I couldn't help myself! Then afterwards, he just stood there staring at me like saying - "Ok, that was fun - can we go now? I'm tired!". But we had to wait til after the awards were given out.

Finally we were called back into the ring to accept our awards. Turns out, another team achieved a perfect score as well, but Red and I had the fastest time - so we got first place in our class out of 7 people! We got a blue blue ribbon, a green qualifying ribbon, and a ghost rope toy in honor of Halloween. Red loved his toy and continued to carry it around and shake it while we packed up our things.

And that was that - our first Rally trial was over. Red slept all the way home, let me take some photos of him and his ribbons, got his dinner, and is now sleeping like a baby =)

Michelle got our run and the award presentation on video for me, so without further ado - here it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-6zWpgT_68