Cross-Training For Obedience & Rally

            Rally obedience is 1 year old now, and the enthusiasm for the sport has been overwhelming!  Described as the best fun for your entry fee dollars, Rally obedience is a great training tool for preparing your dog to enter competitive obedience trials.

            In this article we are going to focus on the new dog to competitive sports, even though Rally obedience is a great sport for dogs who are used to competition as well.  We are also going to focus on some of the concerns that have been overheard about competing in Rally if you want to go on to compete later in obedience.

·         Talking in the ring: People who have not cross-trained these sports feel that if you talk to your dog in the ring, as allowed in Rally, that your dog won’t know what to do when you can only give one command in obedience. 

Facts: When training a dog for competitive obedience trials, all trainers talk to their dogs.  This talking is eventually weaned so that the dog learns not to depend on the owner’s talking.  In fact, we all know that if there is too much talking, all the dog hears is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!!  Observations though of the dogs working in Rally reveal that they are a lot less stressed as the owner is pointedly giving them encouragement and praise during their performance.  Well timed, with the addition of hand cues, you can develop a dog who will learn in a stress-free environment to really enjoy entering the ring for competition.  You can also perk up a dog in the regular obedience ring by talking to them between exercises, and they will draw on their experiences in the rally ring.

·         Body Movement: One of the true benefits of all those Rally exercises is teaching a new dog how to maneuver their body.  Teaching exercises like the “270° left turn” will teach a dog to do a great left turn in regular obedience.  The “Back Up 3 Steps in Heel Position” in Rally, helps the dog set up for a heeling exercise in regular obedience, or for that matter, to assist them in getting into heel position for the set up of any exercise, novice through utility.  “One, Two, Three Steps” is a great way to perfect a fast, straight sit, which is most desired in obedience competition.  “Serpentine Exercises” in Rally will assist a dog in learning proper heel position for the Figure 8 in obedience.  “Pivot Left” and “Pivot Right” is a pre-cursor to the Directed Retrieve in Utility, as is the “Moving Stand Walk Around Dog” which is a pre-cursor to the Moving Stand in obedience. 

In fact, teaching your dog all 50 of the Rally Exercises will give you a great start to preparing your dog for all levels of obedience competition!

·         Ring Experience: With a new dog, one of the things they need most is ring experience before they are ready to trial in obedience.  What better way to do that than to compete in Rally Obedience?  They get the experience of learning to ignore the stimulus outside the ring, the judge walking around the ring when they are performing, other dogs, people, and of course, your stress level.  While we used to rely on matches to get our dogs ready to compete, this is not as available today as it was years ago.  Rally offers all of this in a format that can also earn you a title behind your dogs name.  Exhibiting your dog in Rally, you will find out where those holes are in your training program and will be able to perfect them before you go into the competitive obedience trial.

I hope that you will experience Rally Obedience with your new dog, and find out just how helpful it can be on making him/her your next OTCH dog!