Wednesday, July 14, 2010

DOG-201

Just in case any of you were keeping track, it was 120F here yesterday.

What I actually wanted to talk about in this post was the upcoming Rally Obedience class I plan to teach in the fall. The course will last 8 weeks and I will continue to teach on Thursday afternoons in the same room I was using this spring. The room is big enough to allow me to set up simple courses that aren't too crowded and still leave some space at one end for stashing dogs, crates, gear bags, etc.

I purchased some equipment from J&J--metal sign holders, some extra cones, sign numbers, and a set of AKC Rally signs printed on card stock (but not laminated). I also got an AKC judging DVD and a handful of books with training tips and course ideas.

I joined a couple of Yahoo groups for rally enthusiasts. They contain a lot of chatter that isn't too relevant for our situation here in Dhahran but it is helping to get me started.

My DOG-201 course will emphasize Novice-level AKC-style rally moves. I'm working on the lesson plans. One author suggests training most of the right turn moves in one class and most of the left turn moves in another class. The cone maneuvers can be tricky so I will probably devote a class to those. Some people break out the sit moves and down moves separately but some of those can be lumped in with the turns. The remaining classes will offer at least one or two different practice courses each time so we can talk about walking courses and other important stuff.

I've also got to get my judges trained up. I would like for them to attend the classes so they get an idea of what things should look like (though the AKC DVD will really help) and so they can practice actual judging formalities. Since two of them have volunteered, I'll also cross-train both in ring steward duties.

My goal is to have a rally tournament here in December. Of course, it can't be sanctioned or official. We won't have real titles but I can have prizes and certificates to keep things fun. I'll probably end up designing the courses unless my judges get really into it. I'm planning to use AKC scoring rules for the most part.

I've started working with Mimi on the Novice-level moves. Not a surprise, she is quite keen to play these new games. She picked up on the "come to front from heel position" and the "finish left" and "finish right" moves quickly (in finish right, the dog moves from front around behind the handler into heel position). She does the finish right so tight around me that she brushes my legs all the way around. I'm playing around with various ways to keep the dog in tight, to keep the dog's butt straight, and am starting to vary walking speed with the heel (slow, normal, fast). I'm also watching the DVD to sort out some hand movements for some of the new commands. I had Mimi and Harry doing puppy push-ups this morning (alternating sits and downs) with the traditional raised hand for the down. Both of them already know that hand command but I don't use it normally for the down.

It's hard for Harry to sit quietly while I work Mimi in some of the more active moves. Still, that's really good training for him too. Believe me, he gets plenty of treats when he's a good boy and waits for us to finish!

Agility would be far and away my first choice but it may take me a couple of years to sort out how to do agility here in Dhahran (we can go through this rant some other time). The room we currently use for the dog classes is perfect for rally (right size, well lit, great A/C, good flooring surface), rally doesn't require a lot of equipment, and the skills needed to compete at the novice level are a direct continuation of the things I was teaching in the basic obedience class. I'm casting a wide net for the rally class because all someone needs to enroll is a trained dog--no matter where or how it was trained, if it can walk on a loose lead and has some basic sit/down/stay/heel behaviors, the handler and dog should be successful in my rally class.

Rally on!

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