Rally-O in May

Yesterday Indi and I competed in our second Rally obedience trial together. It went pretty well! She wasn't 100% focused on me but I'd say she did very well overall. There were two trials in one day and we qualified in both of them earning our Rally Novice title.
The first run she was a little distracted but still payed close enough attention to me to get through. I decided to re do one station since she surged ahead when I stopped and I knew we could do better. We ended up with a score of 83 out of 100 and a second place.
My husband was nice enough to come watch and film us. At the 28 second mark you can see when Indi noticed her Daddy on the sidelines.

The second run seemed a little more together. We scored an 86 out of 100 and another second place. I debated re doing the very last station since she sat crooked in front of me and wasn't paying attention but decided to let that one go. Also, I totally didn't realize until watching these videos that on the figure 8 exercise I crossed the middle line four times instead of three, on both runs!

I have tried hard to only use force free training with her, using a tug toy, ball or food as a reward in training and I think the excitement of training together has transferred well into the ring.  The few times she decides to sniff or do her own thing instead of work with me I either start again or just stop training. I don't know how well it will work when she is off leash for Rally Advanced but we will see!

I was very proud of my dog! I love my Indigo!

Agility and Rally-O in October

Two weeks ago we competed in our first Rally Obedience trial together. I entered one day only since I didn't want to try and do agility and Rally at the same time. I didn't have a very clear idea of how she would do but we actually qualified! On the way into the ring she jumped up at me and was very excited, as in agility. I tried to have her sit in heel but she sat crooked and behind me. The judge asked if we were ready, I said uh, yes and then we started. I forgot to wait for the judge to tell us forward! She was nice and did not hold it against us. On the course Indi was very focused! I was impressed! Our only error was that she got up from her sit when I was walking around her in a sit stay. We didn't go back to fix it so we lost 10 points. 
I'm a little afraid that this was just a fluke! Maybe next time in the ring she won't be so focused? Or maybe I have a really awesome dog! I really didn't expect her to be so focused in a new place with no toys or treats and no action of agility!

Then we went on to compete in our fifth and final AKC trial for the year. We got one Q in Novice fast for our second leg and.....that was it! On every other run we knocked a bar (or two).

However, that did not mean we didn't enjoy ourselves!

 

 

Indi continued her trend of not exactly waiting until my "ok" to leave the start line. Except for the last run of the weekend which was a Standard course where she did wait til my release word! It was a beautiful run, so very fast but alas we did not get it on tape and she knocked two bars right near the end. Here is our best Jumpers run. Our last chance at qualifying in Novice Jumpers for the year, failed because of one bar! Oh well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTWyTVdfcAE