Rally Obedience - the not so formal brand of Obedience Teamwork
Rally Obedience is a relatively new addition to dog sport. A combination of obedience exercises and agility-type layout, dog and handler navigate a course of obedience skill exercises that are laid out in a different sequence for every trial. Stations vary from the dog working on-leash and sitting at heel to more complex tasks such as backing up three steps in heel position while off-leash. Signs are posted around the course so the exercises don’t have to be memorized and each team is timed from the moment they start the first station until they complete the last exercise and finish. Their course time is only used as a tie-breaker when more than one team finishes with the same score.
Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) Rally Obedience starts at Novice level and progresses to Excellent with the option of continuing for combined titles of Rally Advanced Excellent.
Other registries are available for competition and in Canada the most notable is Canadian Association of Rally Obedience or CARO. The exercises and their individual performance are similar to CKC Rally Obedience, but for further explanations please take a look at their website (link under More Informaton).
In CKC Rally Novice (RN) class, all dogs are judged on leash. The course consists of 10-15 exercises and uses a minimum of three and a maximum of five stationary exercises which include Halts.
The CKC Rally Intermediate (RI) class is an elective class and is not required to move up from Rally Novice to the next class, Rally Advanced.
Like Rally Novice, this class is also judged on leash. The course consists of 12-17 exercises and uses a minimum of three and a maximum of seven stationary exercises. Courses will not include the Send Over Jump exercise but will include a minimum of three Advanced level exercises in addition to the Novice level exercises.
The CKC Rally Advanced (RA) class is performed off leash.
The course consists of 12-17 exercises, uses a minimum of three and a maximum of seven stationary exercises and requires one jump. Courses will include a minimum of three Advanced level exercises in addition to the Novice level exercises.
The CKC Rally Excellent (RE) class is performed off leash.
The course consists of 15-20 exercises, uses a minimum of three and a maximum of seven stationary exercises and requires two jumps. Courses will include a minimum of three Advanced level exercises, a minimum of two Excellent level exercises, plus the two required jumps in addition to the Novice level exercises.
Upon completion of the Rally Excellent title, dog and handler teams may continue to accumulate qualifying scores from the Rally Advanced and Rally Excellent classes to earn the Rally Advanced Excellent (RAE) title.
In order to complete the RAE, a dog must qualify 10 times in both the Rally Advanced class and the Rally Excellent class at the same trial. In fact, if a team want to continue competition in Rally, they may continue in this manner as long as they wish.
Rule books, exercise signs and course examples can be found at these links:
Canadian Kennel Club
www.ckc.ca
Canadian Association of Rally Obedience
www.canadianrallyo.ca
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