Monday, March 03, 2008

Our Best Rally Day Ever

What a great day Wyatt and I had with Rally yesterday. In Excellent, we got a 97 and 4th in a large B class. We had a couple of small problems with the first few stations and then things went fine. He went over - very briefly - in the initial offset figure 8 and had crooked sit a few stations later. I noticed that I did not get nervous at all until we were 2 dogs away. But I took some deep breathes and made sure to do my usual warmup. It does seems to help to:

Get there an hour early
Make sure the create is completely covered
Make sure his "brother" Patriot is there
Don't do much warmup and nothing right before we go in
Show him the treats he will get at the end of the run
Make sure we are connected at the start line

In advanced, the course was not bad at all and it was similar to Excellent so I felt very confident. I made sure to stay connected in the initial offset figure 8 and go as far from the bowls as possible. Once we sailed through that, everything was perfect, all straight sits and downs. I knew about 1/2 through that we had a 100 going or close to it. Rather than getting nervous, I felt happy and excited. When he did a straight front for a stationary front I thought we had a 100. Turned out to be a 99 but that's OK. I had a secret goal of getting a 99 or a 100 before we got our RAE.

It was thrill to get such a high score and high placements amongst all the BC's, labs, goldens, shelties, poodles, and aussies.

Check it out...

6 comments:

Urban Smoothie Read said...

congrates for ur nearly pawfect score...

are u the only whippet present there? sometimes in local trials, i might be the only mixed breed mutt there and everyone came over and ask lotsa questions...

i've read about the rally obedience b4, but this is the 1st time i watch a video...thanks for sharing...

Paws on the Run said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
manymuddypaws said...

Great Job!

I love his "spring" over the jump- nothing cooler than a Whippet's jumping style.

Congrats on a job well done!

John Heffernan said...

We were the only whippet at Rally but there were 2 the day before at the obedience trial. We are usually (but not always) the only whippets or even sighthounds.

Thanks for your comments, pacco de mongrel and manymuddypaws!

John Heffernan said...

Oh, yeah. Wyatt is quite a jumper. Check out some of his agility videos at

http://www.youtube.com/johnsheffernan

dog face girls said...

Congrats to you and Wyatt. Loved watching the videos and seeing what Rally really is.

Regards,

Vee and the couch potatoes.