I want to thank everybody on here for their help with my dog Sasha and her unwanted/unacceptable behaviour at our first CARO Rally Obedience trial a few days ago. We've done alot of work this week and it really paid off.

First off, I took her for a nice hour-long hike on Saturday morning so come Sunday morning her energy level was nice and low. After a 2 hour drive we arrive at the Poodle Farm where the Rally trial was being held. I got her out and we went for a short "exploring" walk.

Our first round went ok, but she was all "nose to the ground" totally enthralled with the new smells in the ring. We still managed to get a respectable score of 179/200. We needed 170 to qualify. Our second round, Sasha was definitely "in the zone" and we got a score of 187/200.

As things were going so well, I decided to enter us in the team competition. There was a 4 hour wait until the team events so I made sure Sasha was in a quiet place she could relax undisturbed. About 30 minutes before our class, I got her out for a little exercise and tug session.

This method worked great as we were able to get a score of 183/200 and our half of the team only lost us 5 of those points. Round 2 was a disaster. My girl was exhausted and seemed to forget what "sit" meant. We managed to muddle our way through and I didn't feel too bad as the other half of our team had trouble concentrating as well. Unfortunately, we were DQ'd for going over the time limit.

I thought over all it was a great day. 3 qualifying scores with 1 going towards our Novice Rally title and one going toward our Novice Team title. And no unwanted behaviour in the ring!!! Yay!!! I am so very proud of my girl.

Our next competition won't be until January so we have lots of time to relax and slowly work on our weak points.

Congrats!! Really glad she worked so well.

Sounds like a great day. Congratulations to you both.

Congratulations! I think for all of us who compete in performance events with our dogs, it takes a while to learn what our dogs need in the way of warm-up and preparation before any event. Each dog is an individual so it's impossible to generalize. The more you compete, the more you'll get in tune with your dog and be able to show her to her best advantage.

Yeah, it sounds like, by the fourth round, she was just tired of it all, but you got three Qs and learned a lot about what works for Sasha, so it was a great day!

" I am so very proud of my girl."


I sure would be!

Congrats to you both.

Very nice!