Rally Obedience is a fun sport that is a spin off of obedience ring obedience but with an agility type of twist added in. If you think obedience is boring — think again! Rally provides a fun, fast paced way to work your dog through stays, heeling, various turns, stands, recalls (come when called), finishes and exercises such as jumping, sidesteps and a moving drop. This is also a fun way to freshen up your everyday obedience skills — such as walking on a loose leash by distractions, come when called and stay for visitors coming to the door.

It is a great way to work on focus and control around other dogs and build your dog up to a more advanced level obedience but in a more natural manner than formal obedience.  For instance in Rally you can talk to your dog as you work. I find Rally is a great way to build a working bond with your dog and the exercises are quite practical in real life as we all have encounter situations with our dogs where we need them to do a 360 degree turn on a walk perhaps to avoid something or come to us or switch sides when walking or move into heel position.

The dog and handler work as a team navigating through a course with numbered signs. Each sign indicates an exercise to perform ranging from sit and stay,  come when called then swinging into heel position, dropping into a down in heel position to turning a 360 degree circle to turning a sepentine or figure 8 to asking your dog to go over a jump or drop on a hand signal.

There is a start sign and a finish sign and the dog and owner quickly work their way through the various exercises without direction from the judge within a designated period of time.

Rally Obedience is open to all dogs - mixed and purebreed alike.

Rally trials can be hosted by various organizations - ie. in the U.S. the Association of Pet Dog Trainers sponsors trials and so does the UKC and AKC. In Canada there is APDT Rally and also CARO Rally - they are really just slightly different versions of the same thing - small rule differences etc.

There are typically multiple levels you can work through from puppy to level 1, 2, 3 and even a veteran's division.  A dog and owner can can a Rally title after completing  three course runs with qualifying scores. For level 1 any combination of the first 30 signs can be used and the dog is on leash. For Rally 2 in competition - the dog works off leash and performs more advance level exercises - ie. a moving down, performing a figure 8 leash walking pattern around food bowls on the ground etc.

What does it look like:

This is a great clip for Rally Obedience with a tiny dog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgjMtYvZIIY

This is a  larger dog in Rally Obedience. The camera work is tighter so you see the dog better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfL_jXpUgqo&feature=related

This is a larger dog in training for Rally Obedience so you can see the handler frequently rewarding the dog and the exercises are still not as polished but the dog is working very well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnVgt7HNMzM

Class exercises - Rally 1 - introduction to Rally 1 APDT Rally Obedience format exercises.

Rally 2 - finessing and polishing Level 1 exercises.

Rally 3 - introduction to Rally 2 APDT Rally Obedience format exercises.

Rally 4 - finessing and polishing Level 2 exercises.

Course requirements: Completion of at least one beginner level positive reinforcement training course and the dog needs to be able to sit, lie down, stay, come, walk nicely on leash and pay attention on their name around other dogs and handlers and movement.

Course length: 6 classes each level

Course cost: $189

Course location: Moncton training space indoors