Hi! I am interested in getting Remy and eventually Caira into Rally. I'm a bit confused by the stuff on the AKC website though.

Would I enter in rally novice, novice a, or novice b?

I've downloaded the signs. Is there anything I need to know in addition?

Do they look over your dog? What do I need to prepare Remy for?

How many days does it take to get your title?

Thanks!

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Remington Byrd's Golden Shot - "REMY" - CGC, Therapy Dog, Service Dog
Collier's Freedom's Avenger - "Caira"

Rally is fun and relaxed. You would enter Novice A to begin. Novice B is what you have to enter after you already have attained a title previously.

There are lots of little tips and techniques to get the most out of your score, to be a little "course wise" and avoid common mistakes, so it is great to take a class if you can. An example is counting the number of times you cross through the center of the figure 8 out loud, so you do not get stuck in air traffic control and keep going around too many times, as sometimes nervous novice people do by accident.

You need to earn three legs, and they can't all be under the same judge. In Rally Novice, the judge is looking for a sense of natural teamwork between handler and dog, but you need to know the footwork etc well as a handler to get great scores. A dog with great basics- sit, down, stay, front, finish, swing, and heel etc, will have no problem with Rally Novice, but the handler has to be familiar with the rules & signs.

A nice thing is that it is all "challenge by choice" with some exhibitors really competing for top scores and placements with others truly setting the goal of 70 & qualifying as their benchmark of success. It is between you and your own dog what your goals are.

Tally and I did 20 legs this summer for our RAE, and I did RN with Copley at the same time. The new Call Front, Return To Heel was on almost every course, and the new Figure 8 with No Distractions was literally on every RN Copley and newfie Ruffian did.

Pam Dennison has a book called Click Your Way To Rally O which is a little bit focused on APDT, but includes AKC. It explains each of the exercises in depth.

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https://www.facebook.com/MissPlushie
Lush: GCH Am CH Harborview Sweeter Than 'Shine At PoeticGold CGC
Tally: Goldiva Raleigh Tangled Up In Blue CD RAE TDI TT CGC
Copley: BOS Chantilly's Bright Lights Big City RN TDI CGC
Finn: Sand Dancer's Infinite Sky TDI TT CGC

Make sure you read the regulations.

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Jodie

AJ's Maiden By the Sea CDX RE (Annabel - retired)
Mud E Paws UDX OM2 RE OBHF (Conner - retired with 28 OTCH points)
Sunfire's Flying Head Over Heels UD BN RA (Flip)
And the odd one of the family - Colby Jack Teeter Smack CDX GO RA (Colby - Lhasa Apso)

If you are interested in straight up obedience, I would caution you to be very careful how you do the rally. In rally, especially novice, you can talk to the dog and encourage it. In regular obedience, there is none of that. Sooo for some dogs, especially a soft golden, when you go back to regular obedience, the dog is wondering what it did wrong because you are no longer talking to it. When I showed mine in rally, it was after I had gotten all of the regular obedience titles I was going to get on that particular dog(Laney UD, Cookie CDX, and Georgie CD).

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Janice and The Celebration Gang -
"Samantha, George, Tiki, Emily, Mick and Basil" Gone but not forgotten, Sally(Windjammer's Ima Country Girl CDX CGC), Laney(Mandell Marlenes Celebration UD RA CGC), and Cookie(Starseeker's Kissmas Cookie CDX RE CGC).

Rally is good preparation for Novice Obedience. My golden Tally had no special training for CD beyond Rally. He was able to do 4 CD legs (bumper leg) when he was just turning 2 from playing around in rally.

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https://www.facebook.com/MissPlushie
Lush: GCH Am CH Harborview Sweeter Than 'Shine At PoeticGold CGC
Tally: Goldiva Raleigh Tangled Up In Blue CD RAE TDI TT CGC
Copley: BOS Chantilly's Bright Lights Big City RN TDI CGC
Finn: Sand Dancer's Infinite Sky TDI TT CGC

Rally is fun. My dog has an RE. I took classes and had fun at the classes too.

I have done one Rally show and Im hooked! i cant wait for Lilly to start her heat and sign up for more..shes due anyday now. She got her first leg in November and got first place in her group. We did Rally Novice A as I have never titled a dog before in Rally. We did a clicker training class focused on Rally with a new trainer and it really helped. We had been doing regular obedience but it was too late at night and Lilly wasnt getting enthusiastic. Clicker training seemed to help. Im going to focus on Rally until we get out first title then may try for our CD. Our off leash needs some work still so I think a CD will be easier than going onto Rally as you only have a small off leash drill for the CD unlike when you advance into the RA its done completely off leash.

My other goal is CGC, which planning to do soon, as I wanted to wait to do until after they changed the CGC to a title. My trainer, who does the tests, thinks she will pass, I however still worried about the greeting part.. She is getting better but sometimes gets a little crazy.

Look for a Rally show and go to try it out. I'm sure Remy will do great!

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Alison and 2 Furry Kids and 2 non furry kids

Lilly- Golden DOB 1/28/11
AKC name: Goldridge Lights Action Lilly RN CCA
http://k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=433352
Sanford- JRT DOB-9/5/06

Bridge dogs
Toby-Boxer 10 yrs. old (rescue) 9/17/2002-11/1/12
Charlie- Boxer (1st "child" together)2/19/02-3/18/12
Julie- golden retriever ( my heart dog) 5/6/96-3/3/07
Ruby- terrier/chow mix (my 1st dog) 8/1/90-1/15/05
Rusty-shih tzu (million dollar dog) 2/5/99-1/20/04

That's great to hear. Nice job with Lilly!

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https://www.facebook.com/MissPlushie
Lush: GCH Am CH Harborview Sweeter Than 'Shine At PoeticGold CGC
Tally: Goldiva Raleigh Tangled Up In Blue CD RAE TDI TT CGC
Copley: BOS Chantilly's Bright Lights Big City RN TDI CGC
Finn: Sand Dancer's Infinite Sky TDI TT CGC