Rally Obedience is a fun, fast-paced demonstration of a dog and handler’s ability to perform basic obedience exercises. Dog and handler teams appear to be dancing in this fast flowing competitive event.

Modeled after Rally style car racing, Rally Obedience is a course of exercises that you follow by reading the instructional and directional signs. These events are open to all dog and handler teams wanting to build teamwork and to challenge their skills navigating the course together. ~ UKC

This kiss and smile tells it all!

For the past 7 weeks prior to December 15, 2017 Gambler and I have been attending training class at Canine Solutions LLC. At class we mostly were working on Rally Obedience, occasionally we would work on agility and basic obedience. If you follow Gambler’s page on facebook or mine you might have seen some of the antics of the training nights. Needless to say our first 6 weeks of training I didn’t think Gambler and I would be ready for a trial. He thought training was all fun and games and spent more time jumping up at me while biting and humping me as I tried to teach him the course. We both had lots to learn. Gambler was a fast learner and he learned the course pretty fast but he still jumped, bit and humped me any chance he could get. Finally by the last training night before the competition Gambler pulled it together and did the course without any shenanigans. As we were doing the course I could hear the other people in class ask which dog I had with me tonight and if that was really Gambler, they too couldn’t believe how well he was doing.

RO1 Course

Gambler and I entered Rally Obedience 1A as 1 is the first level in RO and A is for teams that haven’t titled in RO yet. The above picture is the course that we needed to complete at the trial. I got to walk the course by myself so I would know what I needed to do once the competition started. Gambler and I were the first ones up. We started at the start sight and then we followed along in numerical order completing each task that was written on the sign. There were 15 stations that we needed to complete. During the competition I can talk to Gambler by giving him commands, Gambler can touch me but I can not touch him. The leash has to be loose and I can not give him any corrections. If there was a sign that I did wrong I could ask the judge if I could repeat the sign. While doing all this you are timed and the judge is watching and marking down any deductions. You start out with 100 points and you get deductions from that, you must have a 70 or better to receive a qualifying score, your placement is on time.

Judge Polly Dake-Jones.

Since we are a team Gambler went out and received our ribbon together. This is where Polly said that we surely deserved this ribbon (Polly is my instructor at Canine Solutions). She said what a wonderful job we did and Gambler kept it together and didn’t even bite or hump me.

Gambler and I:

Thanks Polly!

Even know we were the only ones in our class, we received first place. If there was another team entered in RO1A they would of needed to beat a score of 99 points as that if what our score was.

I’m pretty proud of Gambler, he really pulled it together when he needed to. We had such a fun time and have one leg out of 3 for our RO1 title. We will continue to practice and enter the next event that will be coming up in 2018.

Thanks to Dodge County Canine Club and Judge Polly for a fabulous event.