Rally~O!
Rally, is a fun and challenging sport especially for our exuberant, smart Portuguese Water Dogs. It uses a series of signs directing you and your dog to perform standard and advanced heeling work. One reason Rally has been embraced by the AKC is to encourage new people to the sport of competitive obedience. If you have a fairly good heel and your dog will sit when you stop, please consider entering Rally Novice and have fun!
A typical rally course is held in a 40x50 foot to 50x60 foot space. With the popularity of Rally, smaller course sizes maybe become the norm; this means doing your homework with the signs will give you an advantage. Also, doing as many walk thrus as time allows will help you to not get lost on a tight course. (You are allowed in the ring, without your dog, before the start of each class.)
NOVICE
Course has 10 to 15 signs with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 stationary exercises. A stationary exercise will have a red stop sign on the card, indicating a either a complete sit or a down. The signs used are #’s 1-31. There are no jumps. All exercises are on leash. Unlimited communication: talking, praise, encouragement, clapping hands, patting legs, or using any verbal means of encouragement is al lowed, except whistling. Multiple commands and/or hand signals using one or both arms are allowed. Loud/harsh commands will be penalized.
ADVANCED
Course has 12 to 17 signs with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7 stationary signs; courses shall have a minimum of 3 Advanced level stations. The course signs used are #’s 1-45. There will be a jump; broad, high or bar. If your PWD is less than 20", she will jump at 12"; the other jump height for our dogs is 16". All exercises are off leash.
EXCELLENT
Course has 15 to 20 signs with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7 stationary exercises; courses shall have a minimum of 3 Advanced level stations, and a minimum of 2 Excellent level stations. The course signs used are #’s 1-50. The jump is used twice in Excellent. There is also an Honor exercise, where you and your dog are placed off to the side in either a sit/stay or a down/stay while another competitor runs the course. All exercises are off leash except for Honor exercise, which uses a 6 foot lead. Handlers are not allowed to pat legs or clap hands to encourage dog. Verbal encouragement, multiple commands and /or inaudible signals using one or both arms and hands are allowed.
NOTES
Exercises are done in front, and within 3 feet of signs. The judge will brief you at the beginning of your class with any deviations. Moving Side Step Right, # 20 is performed in front of the sign. All cone exercises are entered with the cone to your left. The figure eight can be approached either direction.
During a stationary exercise, be sure to let your dog completely sit or down before you take off heeling again or it could cost you points. Also, once a handler has stopped on any halt exercise, the handler cannot more his feet to assist a dog without incurring a handler error.
Runs are timed, not for score, but for placement in case of a tie. Running on the course when no fast pace is called for will be deducted from your score.
You may retry the exercise one time if you performed it incorrectly; reducing your points lost from possible 10 points to possible 3. Let the judge know you are retrying. All points of the exercise must be performed including a step or two of heeling to the sign.
Should you become lost on the course, take time to get your bearings before you continue. Once you have started an exercise out of order, you cannot go back.
You many not touch the dog of any reason except to untangle the leash in Novice.
Physically correcting your dog will be cause for and NQ and you will be excused from the ring.
Judges are encouraged to lay out a clean course with out any traps like what you might see in Agility. It is advised that you bring to competition the rules and the signs with descriptions. They can be found on the AKC web site. Bare in mind, this is a new sport and mistakes can be made in course design. The judge should be available during pretrial ring time to answer any question, and the signs and courses are required to be posted ringside.
Some signs that have caught people up:
Confusing #14 and #16: one is stationary, the other is not.
#16 and #42: one you can move backward on, the other you can not.
All the pivot exercises.
#25 and #26: not taking the right amount of steps.
#29: it’s like a dance move with your dog.
#27: the moving down.
#34: not returning to heel after jump.
HAVE FUN!
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