Rally Obedience Wins!
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:20 am
I took Elli and Odin to a series of Cynosport Rally trials last weekend in Ohio. My main goal was to title Odin in Novice and bring Elli along for the experience. They were having 3 shows that weekend, so if we qualified in each on, we'd get a title. My brother in law lives in Columbus, so I was able to talk my husband into driving down with me and helping me unload the crates at the trial before he went off with his brother.
First, I'd like to say how amazingly impressed I was with the Posidog facility. They had by far the nicest set up I've been to for any trial. They offered out of car crating, with a back entrance to the ring for reactive or hyper dogs, as well as indoor crating in a quite, separate room, solid ring gates all around to prevent waiting dogs from interfering with the dog in the ring, and plenty of seating for spectators as well as 2 bathrooms. We had planned on crating in the car, but it was 85 there compared to being only in the 60s back in Michigan, so I moved them inside right away.
The owners of the facility, who weren't involved with the trial, but came to hang out, have working GSDs, malinois, and Dutch Shepherds. When they saw my pre-entry, they were super excited to not only have a Dutch at their trial, but two of them. Elli got to meet them and threw herself all over Chad. He has a 1/2 Dutch/ 1/2 GSD whose dad happens to be Elli's brother (he was a fence jumper and found a GSD ). They also have a positive only Mondio Ring club and frequently have Shade Whitesel seminars as well as other ring and IPO people coming in.
Now on to the trials, I ran Elli first in every trial to get myself used to the course to make sure I was extra prepared for Odin. She had never seen a Rally course, but knows most of the commands. I was hoping she'd qualify, but I didn't really expect much. The first run she thought the signs were really interesting and flipped them all over when we approached before doing her commands, so we only got a 177, but it was still good enough for 2nd. The little overacheiver ended up taking another 2nd and a 1st and beat out Odin every time with two 203 scores due to bonus points earned in the next two trials.
Odin ran well. He had one run of 171, just barely qualifying, but good enough for 4th place, and a 2nd place finish with a 195 in trial 2, only losing to Elli. In his 2nd trial, he looked out into the crowd to see my husband and saw a slushie on the steward's table that he thought looked nice. He almost left the ring to hop up on the table and drink it. That would've been an immediate NQ, but he stayed with me when I recalled him and only lost a few points for the tight leash. The last trial didn't start until 8:30pm and we had been there since noon, so he was plenty distracted and ready to go home. He got a 161, so we were a little short of that 3rd Q needed for his title, but Elli earned hers and he had a great, non-reactive day. They're hopefully having another trial in 2 months that we might make it out to, otherwise there will be more in the Spring.
First, I'd like to say how amazingly impressed I was with the Posidog facility. They had by far the nicest set up I've been to for any trial. They offered out of car crating, with a back entrance to the ring for reactive or hyper dogs, as well as indoor crating in a quite, separate room, solid ring gates all around to prevent waiting dogs from interfering with the dog in the ring, and plenty of seating for spectators as well as 2 bathrooms. We had planned on crating in the car, but it was 85 there compared to being only in the 60s back in Michigan, so I moved them inside right away.
The owners of the facility, who weren't involved with the trial, but came to hang out, have working GSDs, malinois, and Dutch Shepherds. When they saw my pre-entry, they were super excited to not only have a Dutch at their trial, but two of them. Elli got to meet them and threw herself all over Chad. He has a 1/2 Dutch/ 1/2 GSD whose dad happens to be Elli's brother (he was a fence jumper and found a GSD ). They also have a positive only Mondio Ring club and frequently have Shade Whitesel seminars as well as other ring and IPO people coming in.
Now on to the trials, I ran Elli first in every trial to get myself used to the course to make sure I was extra prepared for Odin. She had never seen a Rally course, but knows most of the commands. I was hoping she'd qualify, but I didn't really expect much. The first run she thought the signs were really interesting and flipped them all over when we approached before doing her commands, so we only got a 177, but it was still good enough for 2nd. The little overacheiver ended up taking another 2nd and a 1st and beat out Odin every time with two 203 scores due to bonus points earned in the next two trials.
Odin ran well. He had one run of 171, just barely qualifying, but good enough for 4th place, and a 2nd place finish with a 195 in trial 2, only losing to Elli. In his 2nd trial, he looked out into the crowd to see my husband and saw a slushie on the steward's table that he thought looked nice. He almost left the ring to hop up on the table and drink it. That would've been an immediate NQ, but he stayed with me when I recalled him and only lost a few points for the tight leash. The last trial didn't start until 8:30pm and we had been there since noon, so he was plenty distracted and ready to go home. He got a 161, so we were a little short of that 3rd Q needed for his title, but Elli earned hers and he had a great, non-reactive day. They're hopefully having another trial in 2 months that we might make it out to, otherwise there will be more in the Spring.
