Rally Thursday

Rally is an AKC dog sport, it is basically an obedience sport, but the ‘commands’ are located at little stations throughout the Rally ring.   It  is also the sport I stewarded at last November.

There are three Rally divisions, Novice, Advanced and Excellent.  It is possible for a dog to title in all three divisions and your dog does NOT have to be a pure-bred in order to compete.

Ribbons are awarded to the top three dogs.  The highest score is 100, but the dogs are also timed.  In case of two dogs achieving the same score, the time is factored in to determine the winner.  Any dog who achieves a score of 70 or better  achieves a ‘leg’ once the dog has three ‘legs’ the dog has titled in that particular Rally division.

At an AKC Rally match, there is only one dog in the ring at a time, unless there is an ‘honor’ dog.

In the advanced Rally ring,  a ‘Honor Dog’ is expected to lie at the edge of the ring and not move until the dog working the course has finished and the Steward in charge advises it is safe to release the dog.   Normally the honor dog, is the dog who was in the ring before the current dog.  If a dog is honoring, their score is not complete until the steward advises the scorekeeper that the dog passed or failed.  The dog working the course is ‘scored’ based upon their performance in the ring.

Stewarding an advanced AKC Rally match is one of the more difficult rings to run, especially if there is an honor dog.  Not only are the Stewards required to insure all jumps are the correct height for each dog, the Stewards are also responsible for making sure each competitor is up and ready to go when their number is called.

When I Stewarded there were three of us. Besides the official scorekeeper, there was my friend Ann who made sure competitors were up and ready to go, and held their leash while they were in the ring.  I ran the stop watch and monitored the Honor Dog.   In between dogs we had to check that the jumps were the correct height and in some instances we had to make adjustments.

I can tell you it was a lot of work, and you see some crazy people with their dogs.

I like the idea of the Rally and have actually considered working Delilah toward a title.

If you would like to learn more about Rally, you can check out the AKC  link here.

Hubby and I have been on vacation all week.  Even though I’ve been walking the dogs every morning I couldn’t help but perk my ears up when Sara mentioned she was going to have a drop-in Rally class on Thursday evening.

Normally on a night that Delilah and I have training class I force gently encourage Hubby to take Sampson for a walk.  Thursday night I asked if he and Sampson would like to check out the Rally Class.

Not quite as sophisticated as the AKC commands, but it got the job done!

Sampson doesn’t really care for obedience or agility classes but I think it’s good to keep him on his ‘game.’  Of course Hubby didn’t want a little baggy full of treats, so someone kept going right back to mommy when he was done.

There was eight dogs in the class, Sara had one person start at station one, then once they were at station three, the next person started.  In this manner we got all dogs thru fairly quickly.  After two runs thru, Sara changed the course.

Sampson and his dad.

Sampson kept looking over to me as if to say,  please help me mom, you know I don’t like these classes.

I want to say we did about four different courses, it was a nice way to work on our obedience without being in a traditional classroom setting.

After class was over, Sara cut Sampson and Delilah’s nails.

Stop fighting it Sampson.

Both Sampson and Delilah are so laid back when they get their nails clipped that Hubby joked, take it easy Sampson don’t get so stressed out.

Delilah is not so fond of lying down and leaving herself vulnerable.

Have you ever tried a competitive sport with your dog?  Would you?

Happy Mother’s Day

I dragged my butt out of bed just before six this morning and headed out to the Woodstock Fairgrounds.  There was an AKC match today and my friend Ann and I were Stewards in the Rally/Utility Ring.

The morning started out a little on the chilly side, but by this afternoon it had warmed up to about 80/85 degrees.

The last time we Stewarded we only worked in the Rally Ring, this time we added Utility.

Unfortunately I left my camera in the car and didn’t pick it up until after the lunch break so my pictures are limited.  But I did catch a couple of really cute ones that I thought I’d share.

Enjoy and whether your baby is human, fur, feather or fin, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!

This lab placed first in her class.

A pretty Bichon waiting for the show ring.

 

Food Guarding….Day Three Hundred, Fifty

I’ve had a couple of instances where the dogs have snapped at the cat as they all clamor around my legs at feeding time.   I found the best way to diffuse the situation is to feed Bob first.  Then Bob is out of the way and there are no issues.

Saturday I made a run for raw food, so I had a bathtub full of chicken necks.  After letting them defrost for a few hours I went in to separate them into individual baggies, naturally Delilah had to come with me, just in case I missed the baggie and dropped a neck on the floor, or I turned my back for a minute so she had an opportunity to lap the chicken water.

After about 20 minutes Sampson decided to check out the bathroom, when he tried to pass Delilah she snapped at him.  I didn’t hear her growl, she just turned her head and snapped at him.

I wasn’t in the least way prepared for this so I handled it all wrong.   I shouted “Hey!”  Then I said, “GET OUT.”  Both dogs tried to leave the bathroom, but eventually I sorted them out and got Delilah outside and Sampson in, and I shut the door and left her out there.

I sat there wishing I had a clear glass door so Delilah could sit outside it and watch Sampson and me in bathroom sorting chicken necks with me slipping him the occasional neck.  Which wouldn’t be the right way, since she wouldn’t understand why he was getting the necks and she wasn’t.

I’m really at a loss at the best way to handle the situation.  Normally Delilah does not guard her food, I can reach down and take her dish away if I need to.  I have in fact taken something from her mouth with no issues, so it’s not a typical food guarding issue.

So how about it?  How do you handle this?  Do you have a dog that guards a particular food, or any food at all?  If so, how do you manage the situation?

 

Lessons From A Dog Show….Day Three Hundred, Forty Nine

You learn a lot of interesting things when you Steward at a dog show.

No Pedigree Required:

The thing that excited me the most is finding out that it doesn’t need to be a pure-bred dog in order to compete and title in Obedience, Rally, Agility or Utility.

I always thought in order to enter a dog into any of the dog shows, the dog needed to be a pure-bred, with papers.  I found out yesterday that is not the case.

During the scoring process at the AKC show yesterday, I had to check the Judge’s book with the Judge’s score sheet to make sure the team and dog were correct.  That’s when I noticed it, one of the teams had listed the dog’s breed as “All American.”

“What the hell is an All American?” I asked.

Yes my darlings, yesterday I found out that a mixed breed like Sampson or a little rescued Chocolate Lab like Delilah that came with no papers can be registered with the AKC and can earn titles, and compete paw to paw with the purebreds.  A mixed breed or a dog without papers is classified as an “All American” or “Canine Companion.”

These All American or Canine Companions need to be registered with the AKC, and then you can enter them in a trial.

I’m thinking this is probably more about the All-Mighty dollar and less about people squawking that their dogs can’t compete but I don’t know for sure.  What I do know is I have two dogs that I need to register so I can title them in Obedience and Rally, and possibly one in Agility.

You cannot use a food treat in the ring:

One competitor gave her dog a little treat just inside the ring.  The Judge had to tell her she was excused.  She could still do the course, she just couldn’t qualify.  A qualifying score is 70 or better out of 100.

No tags on collars:

I don’t know the reason for this, but there cannot be anything hanging off from the collar.  We had a quick shuffling of dogs as one woman frantically tried to remove the tag from her dog’s collar.  *Note to self, bring a pair of pliers with you to the dog show.

Bring paper towels:

Yup, dogs around other dogs sometimes get excited or nervous and accidents happen.  Oops!

Stewards get any food they want….for free:

While there were all kinds of foods for competitors to buy, if you had a Steward badge on they just handed you food or drink.  We even had a lovely lunch consisting of roasted chicken, macaroni salad (which this gluten-free gal could not eat) and tossed salad.

Pay attention to what your dog is doing:

One woman (the same one who treated her dog in the ring) wasn’t paying attention to her dog after she left the ring.  She was so focused on getting to her friends and telling them what happened that she didn’t notice her dog had stopped walking and lay down.  Yeah, she basically dragged the dog from the ring.

Some dog people are nasty:

One lady came up to me near the end of the last trial and asked for her competitor number; I said “I’m not allowed to give those out” as I was scoring at the time and the scorer must really pay attention to what is going on in the ring. 

She snotted back at me “I’ve been stewarding at another ring, let’s not go there.”

My inner bitch said, “Go F*** yourself,” but my mouth said, “This is my first time doing this and I don’t have an experienced Steward on site.”

My inner bitch was tickled when she didn’t place.

Seeing I was pretty busy most of the day, I didn’t have an opportunity to take a lot of pictures, but I did sneak my camera out of my back pocket a couple of times.  Here are some random pictures from the trials.

There were crates everywhere!

 

Judge Lynda Moore giving instructions before the walk-thru.

When her number was announced as first place, there was a moment of silence and then a surprised, "That's me!"

 

Jake the Pointer, what a beautiful dog.

 

I called this "Viszla Row."

 

What do you think?  Have you ever heard of Rally, Utility, Agility or Obedience trials?  Titles? Is it something you would want to try with your dog(s)?

 

AKC Steward….Day Three Hundred, Forty Eight

I’ve been holding back on you.  Something very exciting happened to me a while back and I wanted to wait to share it, and today was the day!

About a month ago my friend Ann called and said, “Jodi, you are either going to love me or hate me.”

Damn I hate when conversations start out like that.  I took a deep breath, laughed and said, “Why?”

Ann responded with her own laughter and said, “I volunteered you to steward a dog show with me.”

I was so excited, even though I had no idea what she was talking about!  I’ve watched the dog shows on television but never paid any mind to the folks behind the scenes.

The event was being held at my old high school.  It’s funny, I spent four very impressionable years of my life in that school, yet I didn’t even recognize the gymnasium!

We had to be at the event by 8:00 am, once we got there we were given pins that said, ‘Steward’ on them and shown to the ring we were stewarding.  As it happened we drew the Rally Ring.   Rally is a fairly new sport to the AKC, basically it’s a course set out in a ring, there can be anywhere from 10 to 20 stations, with each station having a specific command that must be completed.  The number of stations in the ring is determined by what level you are competing in.

There are two stewards, one scorer and one judge in the Rally Ring.   Before the competition begins the Stewards hand out armbands with team numbers on it, as well as maps of the course. If there is a jump in the course, the Steward will ask, “What is your height?”  That also gets registered on a sheet posted outside the Rally Ring.

The judge sets the course and before the match begins gives the handlers a walk-through.

Once the walk-thru is complete, there are a few minutes to make sure the course is in order and everyone knows what they are doing.  One of the Stewards stands at the entrance to escort teams into the ring.  The dogs must enter the ring on leash but in some of the advanced Rally classes the handling is done off leash.

The Judge will say, “Please hand the Steward your leash.”  Then the judge will ask the handler, “Are you ready?”  If the response is “Yes” the Judge will say “Begin.”  At this point one of the Stewards will begin timing the team, in the event of a tie score the time is used to determine position.  The Judge is watching the team perform the required steps and is scoring the team on a sheet of paper.  Each team has their own sheet, and then the information on the sheet is transferred to a book, which is turned in to the AKC.  Once the dog crosses the finish line, the Steward hits stop and hands the watch to the scorer.  Our Judge had two watches so there was always one in a Steward’s hand and always one on the scoring table.

As long as a team earns a 70 or better, they qualify.  The top four qualifiers receive ribbons.

In order to earn a title, you must qualify three times at one level with two different judges.

It is also the Steward’s job to make sure the jumps are at the correct height for each dog.  At one point early this morning Ann had to go run Obedience with her dog, and until someone came to help I was doing the entire ring alone, I had one little mistake when a Corgi had a 12″ jump instead of an 8″.  Ooops.

After the lunch break, the scorer for our ring had to go and run her dog in Obedience, so that meant I had to do the scoring!  After a couple of teams went, Ann and I had the new rhythm down.

Our Judge and our Scorer both said we did a great job. Our Scorer said if you can steward for Rally, you can steward for anything!  In fact, our Scorer asked if we would be interested in joining their rotation for next year, and said there might be the possibility of Stewarding the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

As we were leaving, the Judge said to one of the event organizers that she would love to have us again because we were the best Stewards she’d ever had.

Tomorrow I will try and post some more pictures that I took today.