Switching Gears

Tonight, we brushed up on some old Rally Obedience moves. We took Rally class in May and June, but haven't done much since then. Rally class was a very stressful environment for Marge, with 6 or 7 other dogs in a room smaller than this one, so I didn't exactly have a good first experience with it.

Now, since there's only so much agility one team can do, I'd like to start working on Rally again and maybe even do some trials at our home club building (this one). We have a run-through tomorrow with a few other dogs, so tonight was in preparation for that.

I set up a 19 station APDT course that was previously used at a trial (our instructor gave us sample course maps when we were in Rally class, and I found them the other day). Though we didn't work on everything, we did a lot of turns and some cone work.

Though Marge doesn't look as enthused as she does when we do agility, she does seem to like Rally. Turning is her weak spot, but she loves fronts and finishes (as shown by her assumption to left finish at the third station when I hadn't given her any direction yet). She's gotten pretty good at the cone exercises and pivots as well. She lagged a little bit in a couple of spots, but I think she did well over all.

Tomorrow, I'm going to use better treats, be more motivational and see where it gets me. I'm hoping that Marge will have no problem doing Rally with others around, especially since the number of entrants is much smaller than I expected it would be.

(I did drag out two Agility jumps after we ran this a couple of times. I couldn't help it! We worked on go-outs/distance, 180s, 270s, some crosses, an easy modified threadle, and just some fun speedy stuff. I figured it'd be a good way to end the night.)