Brag- Maluko Qualifying 1st leg for Rally Novice with a 2nd placement

edited November 2011 in Shiba Inu (柴犬)
Maluko qualified for her first Rally Novice leg today with a score of 95 points (100 points is the maximum you can get and you need 3 qualifying legs under at least 2 different judges to get a Rally Novice title) and second placement in her class (Rally Novice A and the 1st placement got 96 points).

Growing up, I never had a dog in my life, so she is my first dog ever and of course, my first Shiba.

She did really well and paid attention to me through out the course. She just couldn't resist the urge to scratch at the last station and I had to ask the judge for a redo, costing us 3 points. I can't be prouder of her as this is something that I never expected we would do when I got her 15 months ago. And we only started learning Rally signs about 4 months ago.



We are getting our ribbons for 2nd placement (red ribbon) and qualifying (green ribbon) image

Celebration at home with a frozen Kong.
image

What I like a lot about Rally is that it is supposed to be fun and handlers are encouraged to talk to their dog unlike in traditional competition obedience, you can only use either verbal or hand signals and commands can not be repeated.

And what matters most to me is that Maluko enjoys Rally and the chance to work together as a team on the course. I hope we will do well tomorrow too, but as long as we are having fun, the rest isn't really that important.

Comments

  • congratulations to you and Maluko! It looked like you guys were having such an awesome time! :)
  • Congrats! That's super cool to see a Shiba working. Awesome work!
  • PS: Maluko is super cute in the ribbon photo. :o)
  • Very cool, congrats!! ~
  • Thank you all for the encouraging words.

    We got our second qualifying leg of Rally Novice today with a score of 89 points and 4th placement. The judge and the judge stewards commented on how beautiful Maluko is and how well she did. The judge told us to continue classes and that she thinks we will do well in the sports of Rally if we keep at it.

    As always, I am very proud of my little girl. We may not get the highest score in the ring today, but I know I treat my dog kinder than some of the other teams there. I saw quite a few leash yanking and many "No"s outside of the ring as people practiced. In the ring, you can't use food or even bring food, so a few teams suffered as the dog just spaced out.

    For people who have done some obedience training, you should look into Rally too. I really enjoy our two trials. The judge and the volunteers are super friendly and encouraging and I got a few people approaching me and commenting on how great it is to see a Shiba in the Rally ring!
  • Congrats! :-)
  • Congrats! And that's so cool, too, that she is really enjoying it, and that you started with it relatively recently.

    Watching people do the leash tugs and yelling "no" always upsets me too. It' supposed to be fun for the dog and handler, not something that is stressful!
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