Lego’s first attempt at Rally Advanced

February 24th, 2008

By Anu Maurya

After earning our Rally Novice (RN) title in November 2007, Lego and I went on a long vacation where we both kicked back, enjoyed the holidays, and hardly did any trainings. In January 2008, we decided to get back to our routine trainings and focus on Rally Advanced.

Rally Advanced A is off-leash, has a jump and some additional signs. Lego does well on the bar jumps. With 4 weeks of training. I was brave enough to enter in 2 matches that were held on the same day!

Upon mailing my entries, I figured I should start reading up on the rules and regulations of Rally Advanced. To my dismay, I found out that the jumps could either be bar (high) jump, OR broad (long) jump.

But I had only trained Lego with bar jumps! With this blatant discovery, I knew I had to immediately train Lego for broad jumps. I rushed and ordered a broad jump set. I eagerly unpacked the broad jump, while Lego watched at what mystery box I had brought home.

I set up the broad jump according to the regulations for Lego’s height, brought Lego in heel position, and we ran towards the jump with the “Over” command — exactly what we do for bar jumps. But of course, Mr. Lego had no clue what it was, and just walked over the broad jumps.

I realized we had lots of hard work cut out for us, especially with just 3 weeks left for the match!

Match Day — Sunday, February 24, 2008. We arrived at 8am, and the first match was at 9:30am. The course had a bar jump, and the dreaded figure 8 with a toy and food distraction – I call it the “Evil Temptation 8”. I was told that the location was notorious for various scents on the floor which made it a perfect sniffing haven…

The first dog that entered the ring immediately ran from the start position towards the “Evil Temptation 8”. This was a Non-Qualification (NQ) for the dog and handler. I was extremely nervous with this and we were up next. I walked into the ring, placed Lego in heel position and took off his leash. The judge asked, “Are you ready?”. I acknowledged and we went forward on the judge’s command.

As soon as Lego heard “Forward”, he realized he was in a sniffing haven where he can blissfully stroll and sniff the various interesting scents… We managed to perform the first sign, but for the second one, we missed weaving through the first cone in the “4-cone serpentine”. I thought that would just cost us a couple of points, therefore I decided not to repeat the station – but my assumption was wrong, it was considered to be an “incorrectly performed station” which was a total 10 point deduction :(.

Lego was very distracted, and was constantly sniffing. As we approached the jump, we ran towards it as I said “Over”, but Lego decided it was too early in the morning for him to jump… Instead, he just walked around the jump. At this point I thought the match was an NQ. I had recalled reading and learned from fellow trainers that if the jump is incorrectly performed, there isn’t a second chance to repeat it, and it is considered to be a disqualification. However, I knew we still had to complete the course as per the match etiquette. We barely made it through all the other signs, and I knew that regardless of the efforts, we were still getting an NQ from the jump.

After finishing the course, I was waiting for our NQ score. The steward wrote up the score, and we didn’t get an NQ, we got a score of 71 points instead! I was very surprised and inquired to what the rules were for the Jump. I was told that if the dog doesn’t attempt the jump, i.e. passes by, the team can repeat the jump one more time. But if the dog jumped and hit the bar, then it was considered an NQ. If I’d known that, I would probably have attempted the jump one more time and paid more attention on completing the course!!! Nonetheless, I was extremely joyful that we qualified and got our Green Qualifying Ribbon :)!

There was a 3 hour break for the next match. During the break, I made sure I walked Lego around the area and practiced on “leave it” and “watch me” in the hope to prevent him from being Mr. Sniffing Sherlock again. The course was shorter than the earlier one, it had a bar jump and no “Evil Temptation 8” :). Lego was more relaxed and focused. The steward called us to the ring, took the leash and the judged asked us to move forward. Before approaching the jump, I looked down at Lego, and asked him “Are you ready?”. He acknowledged with a stare back at me.

“Let’s GO! OVER!”, I said. Like clockwork, Lego took off and jumped! We both were extremely excited! And Lego ran a bit too far off after the jump which cost us some points to bring him back in heel position.

All in all, I was very pleased. We got 89 points and were awarded 3rd place Yellow Rosette, Green Qualifying Rosette and a gift.

One more leg to go for our Rally Advanced title!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entry Filed under: K9TL Member Blogs, Lego's Blogs