Tassie Tortoise

Tasmanian Dog Training Club at Churchill Park, Launceston Tasmania. Beginning Rally Obedience Five-week course commencing Sunday, 26th Sept. One-hour sessions with 9.30am sharp start each Sunday. Pre-requisite is completion of Tas Dog's Beginning obedience or demonstrable ability to train basic heeling, sit/drop/stand, stay/wait. There will be a nominal fee; you will get handouts and course maps of the beginning courses we use. Hoping www.tdtc.org.au site will have further info posted soon! Trainer: Jan

I'll tell you dedication. Setting up your Rally-O Trial course in the snow to practice how you will judge it!

Congratulations to all entrants at the Ulverstone KC Rally-O Mock Trial yesterday! There were some great runs and everyone trialled their hearts out in the spirit of this new and growing dog sport for Australia. Novice B 1st Tasha (Lorraine) 2nd Jazza (Yvonne) 3rd Bear (Dot) Novice A 1st Gizmo (Elaine) 2nd Shaka (Dot) 3rd Annie (Dot) Many others posted qualifying scores; all got a participation certificate. Thank you to stewards Toni and Jeri and thank you to Derrick for assisting in course setup to shorten the waiting period between end obedience and start Rally! There were some very tired dogs at the end of the day with two obedience trials and the Rally-O demo trial and a very 'weathery' day. We all learned heaps, I'm sure. The Judge got dinged 2 points for tripping over the Finish sign...twice! Best piece of advice from the day - add some eucalyptus spray and a sponge to your Rally Judging or Rally Club kit! Apply to signs, pylons, or sign holders after dog pees on them and before the next dog enters ring! Thank you again, UKC, for giving me the opportunity to help champion this cool dog sport! The 'Judge' NB - trying to share Rally_O_Course_Novice_20100509_UKC.pdf my course here; would like to get the ball rolling on exchanging course designs/ideas/resources.

I believe there's a club in Sutherland that is keen on Rally-O, they've had Angelsun up for a workshop. Or is that just a bit too far south for you?

Your boy was really really good - I mentally had him first! But, all the jrs were very good and deserved to be there. So, would action photos like this do? http://www.jancollett.com/albums/sydroyal/jrhandler/ I only have photos from the finals as I didn't do the heats. The lighting there was very tricky, it was my first time so these were the 'best' of your young fella. And, have only been back a few days and haven't had time to organise my photos so a quick upload for now. I hope he keeps up with the handling, he's a natural. Regards, Jan

Just to kick it along a bit.... There are more than a few agility judges out there who think Rally-O is a great 'bridge' from basic obedience to agility, particularly for those starting out in dog sport who love the look and idea of agility but may be a bit hesitant about running around with their dog, dog fitness/health, confidence level etc. Rally teaches you to think, follow a sequence in proper order, execute the exercises ('obstacles') correctly, encourage and have fun with your dog, working as a team! Rally-O dogs need just as much impulse control and focus as traditional obedience and agility dogs. So, very possibly, if you are having a tougher time promoting Rally-O among obedience people in your area, talking to your agility people might help. Rally-O is a great complement to traditional obedience and not meant to take ANYTHING away from traditional obedience. I personally, get a great charge out of watching a well executed heel pattern in trad ob and watching a good dog/handler team performing, at all class levels. IMO, the best teams are those where there is obviously a great sense of teamwork and good praise for dog at exercise finished, whether 'passed' or not. As an aside, I commend all those who entered at Sydney Royal this month; I have great respect for anyone who got a qually there - they truly have super dogs - what with being next to the rides, screaming children and crowds streaming past constantly! I also quite enjoy watching good agility runs and really enjoy watching those handlers who are having fun with their dogs. And, now helping teach Rally-O at two clubs, I am also enjoying watching grins spread on faces and tails wag furiously as dog/handler teams 'get it' and start to blossom in their sessions. It shouldn't matter what sport we choose to be involved in with our dogs, the core message should be, have fun with your dog! /end soapbox

Chiming in a bit late here, have been on the big island a few weeks, hanging out at Sydney Royal and participating in Tracking workshop last weekend in VIC (thanks Tracking Club Vic for a great weekend!) Here are a couple more photo/video links to show more Rally-O in action http://www.jancollett.com/albums/dogzone/rallyo/index.html http://www.tdtc.org.au/photo-gallery/tdtc-...o-workshop-2009 Tassie has been quite proactive with Rally-O, had Angelsun for two workshops last year, south and north, and holding fairly frequent mock trials - upcoming: Ulverstone, 9th May Launceston, 27th June New Norfolk (GSD), 18th July Keeping all fingers, toes and paws crossed that it will be sanctioned next year! If your area has been a bit slow on take-up, need to get Angelsun out for a workshop - great value and will pump everyone up with enthusiasm.

Have a look http://www.janandjessie.net/ His BITSA result reported a 'statistically significant' marker for Tibetan Spaniel When I picked myself up off the floor some time later and perused the rest of the 'report', to be fair, this 'statistically significant' amount was just barely significant. The value for his obvious breed heritage was significant enough for them to report him as 25% or 'secondary' of that breed. A total of 57 breed markers were 'identified', nearly their entire database! Everything from Alaskan Malamute to Whippet. I had been advised by others prior to submitting his swabs that the science just isn't there yet in terms of pinpointing breeds but did it mainly, because I could and for a bit of a giggle and after a second person suggested he had Cattle Dog in him (yes, but 'statistically insignificant'). It certainly provides a laugh at parties and bbqs, 'meet my Tibetan Spaniel, Caesar!' My theory was that all dogs would probably return quite a few breed markers albeit in miniscule amounts just because of human interference throughout history; I would be interested to know more results for supposedly 'purebred' dogs. My fella is a rescue dog, have had him in my life 2 years now and wouldn't trade him for anything. I always reckoned he was a product of bad backyard breeding and not 'pure' so I guess this test confirms that but that's about all.

Rally-O classes now happening regularly on Sunday mornings in Launceston, currently in the 10.45 time slot - two concurrent sessions, one for beginners and one for more advanced (those who attended the seminar). A mock trial will be held 29th November in the afternoon after the obedience morning trial. Location is Churchill Park in Launie. Check the club's website at www.tdtc.org.au for more info and/or to register. Come along on the 29th to watch or drop by on Sunday mornings to get further involved. Angelsun, glad to hear you had running water and lights in Townsville!

.

Well, the power finally back on last night. The Roamin' Gladiator has been hydro-bathed to remove his Eau de 'dead thing' Cologne and a chainsaw purchased to convert 18 windblown trees into next year's firewood (not including the ones we removed from the road on the way to the seminar Sunday morning). I learned heaps from our Tas Dog Training Club Rally-O weekend not the least of which is that Rally-O instructors can see the lighter side of any Tassie weather drama as long as plied with the basic food groups of wine, caffeine and chocolate. Oh, and if you want a little music with your charcoal chook by candle light, just ring the power company and put your phone on speakerphone for 30 minute segments of 'lift music'. In all seriousness, the Rally part of the weekend was a resounding success and 21 very enthusiastic participants are eager to progress this sport in Northern Tas and Australia-wide. Tas Dog will be having a mock trial the afternoon of their November obedience trial. I would like to thank the Tas Dog committee for their support in seeing this through. Many thanks also to Laurie, Brenda and Hazel, "Stewards in Training" (and sign chasers extraordinaire). Thanks to all participants, human and dog alike - there was some beautiful teamwork out there on Sunday. I hope to 'process' a few pictures in the next couple of days and will post link when they're uploaded. And, yes, thanks Gayle for helping Angelsun have a few touristy moments meandering around Meander Valley on the way to the airport. Biker girl, your sheppie girls were gorgeous and good, as always. I look forward to adding your classes to my weekly fix of Rally-O. Most of all, thanks Angelsun for a great seminar; your energy level was amazing as was your gracious good humour when the lights and hot water went out in Golden Valley.

am I excited or what. I just couldn't wait Angelsun for you to get back to my emails but TasDog has selected a date for September to invite you down to Launceston for the workshop! Please go read your emails and get back to us right away to confirm! J&C

Tassie workshop photos Hope this works; I haven't tried links before!

You clubs with seminars coming up are in for a treat!!! I am total newbie for the past year at learning obedience or anything dogs for that matter as I've only come late in life to co-habitate with these wonderful creatures. And of course, I have to do it even harder way and take in a second-chancer. My fella and I were totally floundering in Grade 2 obedience at our local club (NO fault of the club's!) and I was in despair. A mate said, come down to Hobart with me to this rally obedience thing and I said, yeah right, well at least I can do some photos. Day 1 chock full of information, every sign gone over with fine tooth comb; lots of fun people, particularly the lady with the funny accent. Day 2 I still wasn't going to actually try a course, it was fun watching - thank you playful GSD and cones ;) . I eventually was the last one to do first course and came out in tears Some how, some way, I was hoodwinked into going in the second course. The loud screech which could be heard at the top of Mt Wellington after lunch was me...we passed! Caesar and I have found our zone! We have lots of sloppy heel work to tighten up and way too many crooked sits, still many basics to get right but he actually seemed to have fun rather than being bored out of his skull. My mate commented she could actually see him smiling as the day wore on! Tips from a rank amateur: walk the course at least twice (do the maneuvers to get your feet 'thinking') + choose your retries prudently but DO use them + TALK to your dog! This is definitely filling the gap for us since we were regressing with traditional obedience and he is not built for speed and agility. If any VIC, NSW, ACT clubs planning to have mock trials, please post here and preferrably on new Rallydownunder forum as I would love to attend some more of this even if have to come to big island. Heather rocks - Rally O rocks!