Sunday, October 10, 2010

Beryl's First Rally O Competition

Well, I'm very glad we went even though she was worse than I thought she would be:-)  It just proves how very important it is to train in strange places.  She was happy to be there to begin with as she loves going somewhere new and we (Beryl, Frankie and me) had a good wander around the grounds after we got there and she was happy and settled, then she got totally focused on something or nothing that was out of the course and I couldn't get her back!  It was almost like she was looking for the lure coursing that she had done in a different place the weekend before.
Yoo hoo, Beryl, where are yoooooo?
She totally refused to sit, which isn't like her.  She doesn't enjoy it but I did think she'd do a couple:-)  But I was really stoked with her because last night I'd decided I should teach her to do a sit-stay with me walking around her as that station was bound to be in the course.  And I did manage to walk around her once last night and then quit.  So we did one practise before we went into the ring and I told her to sit and wait, she sat for a second then began to get up and I told her to wait again and the lightbulb went off:-)  Oh right, we did this last night, she thought, and I walked around her, yay!!!  So even if she was totally distracted doing the course I think the day was a success just for her little sit/stay in a strange place.  And it was good experience for us both.
Good heel position:-)
Neither Frankie or Beryl qualified but Lucy put in a good round and got a merit certificate, way to go Lucy and Rachel:-)
Lucy doing a turn
Lucy and Rachel doing the figure 8 weave
Nice heeling Lucy!
Frankie and I had gone first, get it over and done with:-)  It was only his second competition and he was as distracted as ever and soon DQ'd but he did do some things REALLY well:-)  Well, maybe 2 things, his 1, 2, 3 sits were extremely good and also his 'sit while I walked around him' was great:-)  He was actually better than I expected him to be.  He is so easy to teach anything but as soon as he gets in the ring the nose hits the ground or else he's looking around for new dogs he should say hello to:-)  But we'll get there.  He's only young and is improving.
Me and Frankie having a pep talk!
Doing the 1,2,3 sit
I don't think I'm supposed to drop the lead, lol!
Me walking around Frankie
Oh, who's that over there?
Nice heel position at the end!
So we had a good day, learnt lots and it will probably be months before we get to another competition because there aren't many of them and it's getting to the time of year when I'm working 7 days a week so I can't get to them anyway:-(  Not to worry, it's all fun whenever it happens.

I hope everyone is enjoying your weekend and I'd better check out the Saturday Blog Hop while I'm here.  If you want to join in too just head off to Life With Dogs for the instructions and links and check out some great blogs:-)  Seeya!

5 comments:

jet said...

it's good they gave it a go! we don't have rally-o here but I bet Bender and Barbie would like it once they understood what I wanted.

Kristine said...

Hello, I just found your site via the Blog Hop.

Rally-O is something we haven't tried yet. But maybe we should as it looks like a good challenge. The dogs look like they're enjoying themselves as well.

whygreyhounds said...

Great photos! Some clubs are introducing Rally-O but I haven't seen any in Victoria either! I would love to try with Rexie as a bit more relaxed than formal Obedience.

Unknown said...

Hi - we are new followers from the sat blog hop!

Aragon greyhounds said...

Rally is so fun. I teach my dogs a word to refocus on me. I use "treat" to get them to look at me when they are distracted. Most of the time they do get a treat-enough to have them look at me-but it snaps them out of what they are looking at. Good luck in the future.

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