The boys (and hopefully Kya in the future) are really starting to be competitive and earn some awards and certificates. I was keeping everything in one binder but that was starting to overflow so I separated and organized.

Binders:

Search and Rescue

Dock Jumping

Agility, Rally, Non-Competitive Obedience

Misc - this one includes things like their AKC/UKC registration, OFA, shot records, raw diet information etc

Tonight was the boys’ last class for Rally. I brought a kennel again, Midas was much better behaved in it this time around. Preferred to sit and mope, with his nose smashed to the grate and look pitiful. Perfect

Midas was on tonight. There were some things where he was being pretty lazy but for the most part he did really well. We had some distraction (a toy and a food bowl) that he did fine on and two jumps which he had no problems with. His Swing command was the cleanest I’ve seen it but we still need to work on the Stand command. We went through twice and he was pretty focused the whole time. I talked to the instructor about his waning attention span and decided to give him a little break from Rally. We will be going to her open sessions later when possible with a hopeful competition date of October.

Mason was terrific as usual . He nailed the jump tonight so that I had to speed up because with his new confidence he was starting to twist, looking for me. His Close command is really, really coming along. He does excellent with sit while I walk around him and with lay down. We need to work on the Stand command quite a bit though. His heel is perfect but the first time we went by the distractions he didn’t do well. The second time though, my Leave It command was enough, he glanced but did not even take one step toward the distraction. Our biggest trouble is making sure his wagging tail doesn’t take out the signs lol. I may consider doing more Rally classes with Mason, I haven’t decided yet. Perhaps I’ll just work him at home and then wing it at the same event Midas is going to. Will have to think about it.

Class #2 : 5/15

Tonight I was alone at Rally again, with the two boys. Midas was quite naughty. Very loud and distracted on the course, resulting in a distracted instructor who didn’t see Mason on the course either time. Mason on the other hand, was awesome! He is so focused on the course that I think we could do it off-lead, if he knew what I was trying to get him to do haha. I can’t wait to continue on with him.

Class #3 : 5/22

For class tonight, I packed Kya’s wire kennel and a sheet. The boys took turns covered in there, practicing being quiet. If worked quite well. Midas wasn’t distracting the instructor this time so that was good, although I am not sure she saw Mason go through the course anyway. He does so good that I wonder if she is thinking I’ve done other classes like this with him before, which I haven’t. Midas was completely and totally distracted, we only did the course once. He doesn’t seem to enjoy it as much as he used to .

Tonight was the beginning of our third round of Rally classes. I’ve decided to start bringing Mason along to the class as well. He wasn’t the only new one though, there was a new Rottweiler and a co-worker brought his very frightened German Shepherd. Eric was unable to come so there are no photos of Mason’s very first class.

We didn’t have any new signs and it was kind of hectic to make sure that everyone could get through the course twice but it was really amazing to do with both of my boys! They each threw a little bit of a fit when I would leave one behind and work on the course with the other. But, they quickly got the hang of being quiet (with some treat help from the instructor ), with only some intermittent whining towards the end.

Midas did great, we worked entirely on the flat collar, no prong even on. There were no new signs but the way the course was set up was very difficult. He did really well and the instructor commented that she could tell how hard I’m working to get his attention with my voice and not by the leash. Progress. At the end of class I was standing with him in a small-ish circle with the new GSD and the Portuguese Water Dog and he never even looked at them, ignored them completely .

Mason did wonderfully for his very first course at a new place (at which he peed all over the floor the last time he was there), lots of new people/dogs and a very difficult course. Our biggest struggle was in switching him from heeling on my right to heeling on my left. I worked so hard to teach him to stay on the right, and now he’s so consistent so that if he ends up on the wrong side by accident he will rush to get into heel position on my right . Poor eager, confused little dude. He sure gave it 110% though! He kept eye contact wonderfully and while his sits were extremely sloppy he gave trying all the difficult signs a very valiant try. The instructor says he definitely has potential so I am really looking forward to next time with both of them!

Tonight ended Midas’s 8th week of Rally classes. He’s come so far. From the screaming, thrashing idiot on a prong to the quiet, focused (mostly) dog on a flat collar.

Then:

Now:

We will be competing this summer!

Tonight was Midas’s last Rally Class. We had a couple of new signs:

Midas knows the Back command but always at either a right-angle to me or facing me and straight in the opposite direction. This was a little difficult for him because he was supposed to stay in the heel position and back straight up with me. Easily done with a treat to guide though.

This one was easy and we had no difficulties.

We worked on his flat collar the whole time. The first time through the course was much more successful than the second time. The second time he couldn’t keep his nose off the floor and he wasn’t as focused. Part of the reason is that one of the ladies in my class is constantly trailing treats behind her - making it distracting for the next dog on the course.

We had another jump in this course, he did really well coming right back into the heel position:

Our serpentine weaves through the cones went really well:

This was our second time through, he wasn’t paying attention and instead of sweet-talking him for ignoring me, I started to pop his collar - he started paying attention better:

Our favorite sign is when he is called to Front and then Swings back into position:

We had this sign again:

He did much better with just a treat:

Midas’s “younger brother”:

The Portuguese Water Dog I love:

A great ending to our second round…we will be entering the third round next week I think.

Tonight was Midas’s third Rally class, Eric came with to get some photos.

It was a good time. We worked entirely on his martingale collar and he did fantastic! We’ve come so far in such a short amount of time.

We started out with practicing the Swing command, in which Midas leaps up from in fron tof me and turns to land in a heel beside me. It’s fun to train and he enjoys it. He’s really getting the hang of it. Now to apply the command and start asking him to do it that way.

We had two “issues” to work with tonight - Midas’s love for the instructor:

Which made it difficult for us to have her follow us on the “course” since the first quarter he wanted to gaze after her…dang dog!

He also had some extremely sloppy sits:

His heeling was much better since I’ve been practicing leading him with the treat, he’s more liable to be in the correct position. He’s also really caught on to the Back command when we do our Right Turns.

(look how he’s watching me )

He’s also been really itchy lately, which results in a lot of head-flopping and scratching - Spring is hitting all of us:

Our second time through the course, his heeling was much improved!

Look at that loose-leash!

He of course took the jump in the course fine:

(look at his tongue )

We finished the course with loose leash still hanging (you can see it behind my leg) and tail wagging:

Which is what makes this fun. As long as I see this:

I know he’s enjoying himself!

Eric came with to Rally class tonight so I’ve got some photos. We had another advanced course set up and it was a little confusing when I walked through it first by myself. But, when we went through all-together it made much more sense. Midas was wound pretty tight tonight - but for once that actually worked in my favor. Once I did a walk-through, I practiced a couple of things off the course.

His sits are becoming SO much better!

I struggled with the Swing command and kept mistakenly putting him into a sit afterwards instead of moving forward. Totally my fault. The instructor said that some people, instead of having their dogs execute the Swing on a walk, will teach them to jump up and pivot into position. She also thought that Midas would really excel at that because he’s so athletic (and he likes to jump around). So, she demonstrated how to go about teaching him that.

He was really loud and obnoxious when we first got there, so I tied him to the wall and we practiced the Quiet command - with other dogs on the course - he did really, really well!

Since the instructor has started working more often with him one-on-one in class, he really likes her - here he’s having a hard time focusing on me because she’s following behind and might give him a treat.

*eye roll* goober dog.

Advanced Rally classes are supposed to be off-lead - but we’re obviously not ready for that. So, everything is on-lead. He does great over the jump (it’s just like agility).

The figure-8 we do fine on, except a little “leash-steering” on my part, something I really have to work on!

We really tried to nail the Close command on this course:

Which he did very well!

We had a new sign, which worked on a different version of Close than we’ve done before.

Description: “HALT – Side Step Right – HALT. With the dog sitting in heel position, the team moves one step directly to the right and halts. The dog moves with the handler and sits in heel position when the handler halts. The exercise may be performed just past the exercise sign. (Stationary exercise)”

He did this very well considering I wasn’t sure what I was doing. Great fun!

We did the course twice, once on the prong, once on his martingale - the instructor says that we’re not quite there, but so close! How awesome is that!?

Then he had to sit patiently (and quietly) while the other dogs went through the course:

This is a silly photo:

We had the beginning of our second rally class tonight. Only one lady, plus us, were there form the time before. But, she brought a new dog and her friend brought her Portuguese Water Dog to class. That dog was amazing.

Midas did really well tonight. We were just on. His worst problem was sniffing the ground but we’re working on that. This was an Advanced level course and so there were several new signs that we had not used before.

My favorite were these:

This was the description: “Left About Turn. While moving with the dog in the heel position, the handler makes an about turn to the left while at the same time the dog must move around the handler to the right and to the heel position. The dog does not sit before moving forward in heel position with the handler.”

This was pretty self-explanatory, and he did great (because it’s just like agility). There were two other signs that were very new and I didn’t have very high expectations because his tight heel is pretty…loose. But, he did both of them fantastically, like he’d known them the whole time!

Description: “HALT - Turn Right One Step - Call to Heel. With the dog sitting in heel position, the handler commands the dog to wait or stay. The handler then turns to the right while taking one step in that direction and halts. The dog is called to heel position in the new location before moving forward to the next station. (Stationary exercise)”

Description: “HALT - 90 degree - Pivot Left - HALT and Forward. With the dog sitting in heel position, the team pivots 90 degrees to the left in place, halts, and then moves forward. (Stationary)”

There was one that we had to practice off-course before we could even remotely attempt to do it on the course. I should’ve expected that since we had the same problem with walking around him in a lay down/stay.

Description: “HALT - Stand Dog - Walk Around.With the dog sitting in heel position, the handler will stand the dog, command the dog to stay and walk around the dog to the left, returning to heel position. The handler must pause in heel position before moving forward to the next station. In the Advanced Class, the handler may touch the dog, move forward to stand the dog and may pose the dog as in the show ring. (Stationary)”

We got a plastic lid with peanut butter on it and held it in front of his face while I walked around him. It worked but I would still like to teach him the command “Stand” just for general use.

The class was a blast, as usual. We were really challenged and he did great! It’s also a great bonding experience as well!

Tonight was Midas’s last Rally class, although we have signed up for the next round as well. We had a lot of fun tonight. We worked on staying close and pivoting on his feet during left turns and then we each had a chance to walk through the course and be graded.

We had a hard time with the moving lay down and the sit was also in the wrong position so we practiced that many times tonight. Towards the end he finally started to “get” it.

We did well on the serpentine tonight - I was very careful of watching the leash and only used vocal cues to get him back where he was supposed to be:

For some reason, tonight he was pretty awful about not putting his nose to the ground, not sure what his problem was and I definitely got points off for it, but he needed to respond.

He caught onto the Front command the first day and that stayed strong tonight. I switched to carrying my treat back behind me and it’s working wonders for keeping him in a better position (instead of trying to dance in front of me in anticipation of a treat):

A couple of times when I said the Wait command, he would sit and then walk, scooch, sit. We need to work on that because it looks awkward.

We ended up with a score of 69 - one point too low to pass, if this were a real Rally trial. I was thrilled! This after only 4 weeks of training . Plus, we came in second only to a dog that is also being trained in Obedience.

The things we need to work on: bumping (this only rarely happens and I’m therefore considering it a fluke ), moving sideways (on purpose, he’s not staying close enough to me), crooked sits, tight leash, moving down and of course the nose on the floor was the highest marks against us.