Rally Obedience

[Root Beer]

Have any of you tried Rally Obedience with your Border Collie?

 

I'm about to start and wondered if anyone would like to chat about it?

[BigD]

Our obedience training club uses a rally course for puppies and beginners at graduation. It's fun, goofy and low stress for the handlers and dogs.

 

I have not seen any clubs out here start a formal rally class. There has been talk of it - especially since the AKC made it a regular class starting in Jan. 2005. And I think some of the trainers/judges out here went to a seminar on rally.

 

If our local club puts rally down as a regular class at the trials I may try it. But the AKC has a way of ruining something that would have been fun by making it stuffy and formal.

 

It's a good, fun way to spend time with your dog if it's treated as a good, fun thing to do. If it's just a class for Rally-AKC trials, then it may be picky and not as fun.

 

 

Denise

[Deanna in OR]

Oh yeah, Rally! We have been training for Rally with both Willow (Collie) and Tenaya (BC) for over a year. It's fun for all of us, a great way to work on general obedience. Unlike formal Obedience, you can talk to your dog, give both hand and verbal commands, and generally have fun.

 

While AKC is one of the primary venues for Rally, APDT also holds Rally trials (and in certain parts of the US, APDT is the main provider of Rally trials and matches). In the US, UKC will start Rally trials on Jan. 1, 2005. Both UKC and APDT allow any dog to participate--no registration requirements.

 

Here's a link to the APDT Rally website to learn more:

http://www.apdt.com/rallyo/index.htm

 

Deanna in OR

[border_collie_crazy]

yup yup, I trained shadow in Rally, and Happy knows all the stuff to, Misty knows some of it, but she does not heel very well lol all the obedience classes out club runs revolves around Rally

[Root Beer]

Big D -

 

Thanks for your input! You wrote:

 

"It's a good, fun way to spend time with your dog if it's treated as a good, fun thing to do. If it's just a class for Rally-AKC trials, then it may be picky and not as fun."

 

I'm glad to say that's definitely not going to happen at the place where I train. I took some Agility classes there with my Border Collie and the emphasis was much more on enjoyment and meeting personal goals than on preparation for competition. The training center isn't AKC affiliated, so I doubt it will be overly formal.

 

Deanna -

 

Thanks for the site!

 

border_collie_crazy -

 

Thanks for the input! I look forward to seeing how this works with my guy! I am a little concerned about his heeling ability. He tends to want to shoot out in front of me. But I'm hoping we will work on that in the classes!

[Root Beer]

Update!!

 

I haven't been here in a while, but we did finish our first Rally class and have begun our second.

 

My Border Collie, Speedy, absolutely loves it - and he does really well! We are going to compete at Level 1 in APDT in March!

[KrisK]

I haven't started Rally officially yet, but I've seen it done and it looks like a blast. All the dogs and the handlers were having a great time...never so so much tailwagging.