Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Ike Rocks Rally-O

I had stellar-happy Ike in class last night. He actually very nearly greeted Jennie (unusual for an Ike!), he worked for Jennie (!), he grinned, and he wagged after one of our runs. In short, he was excellent AND he had a good time!

Again! Can you tell I am wishing I never promised him we would not trial?! :-P Of course, if Ike thought trialing was still an option there would be WAY more stress and less fun in his mind - without a doubt.

His fronts were QUITE straight for an Ike. Left About Turn was right near the entrance to the ring - there were people collected there. While he gave them the hairy eyeball he did the sign very smoothly! He worked really nicely for me. We need to work on Fast Pace. Jennie didn't feel like there was a discernible difference in our pace. She showed me what she would like with Mick and we will work on that this week at home.

Course consisted of:

Start
1. Halt - Turn Right - 1 Step - Call to Heel - Halt
2. About "U" Turn
3. Left Turn
4. Halt, Walk Around Dog (Ike has been doing super with this lately!)
5. Halt, 1 Step, Halt, 2 Steps, Halt, 3 Steps
6. Right Turn
7. Fast Pace
8. Normal Pace
9. Left About Turn (We're slowly getting this!)
10. 270 Right Turn
11. Call Front, Finish Right, Forward
Finish

On the way home I spoke with my friend Michele and she asked if I would ever consider doing Rally-O with Carmen. It is a thought. She is less operant than Ike, so in some ways I could see it being easier to train her and obviously her vision wouldn't be an issue on a rally course. She likes to compete so I could get my competition fix. Of course, I would really like Bug to be doing Rally-O, too. No way I can work all three of them (in a class) and I canNOT take Rally-O away from Ike. Food for thought....

5 comments:

Nancy said...

Glad to hear you had a good class and that Ike likes Rally-O.
Maybe Stewie and I will try it this winter.

Sara said...

Awww, I'm so glad Ike is happy. That's awesome.

Blue said...

That's awesome! Good job Ike!

101mutts said...

I was actually thinking about you and Carmie doing rally because I read the APDT rules before the Show n Go and it specified the handler of the dog had to be a close family member of the owner and I noted daughter-in-law wasn't on the list.

Yay Ike!

Jules said...

Shaya, Fortunately Jack (my FIL) and I co-own her on paper (and in her heart I think)! :-) We did that just in case there was ever any issue with me running her and because I pay all trialing expenses, etc.