Rally FrEe seminar

First, a quick note about the photo shoot.  Gimme did very well, but was exhausted afterward.  I thought she was still awake, until I looked closer in the rear view mirror and realized she had already fallen asleep, with her head held up by her chin resting on the crate bars.  And this before we got out of the parking hi-rise.

The photographer volunteers at the animal shelter and teaches with a clicker, so we had much in common.  Gimme continues to be the most incredible people magnet.  We were almost late because of all the people who just had to pet her, despite me planning extra time to find where we needed to go and have time to acclimate to the situation.  While we were getting Gimme accustomed to the flash, Katie took pictures, so our private shoot at the end went faster.  I could see some pictures pop up on the computer screen and they are going to be DAMN CUTE!  Can't wait to see them.

Naturally Gimme totally upstaged the professional model.  On an interesting side note... despite tripods and stands and wires and stuff just everywhere - Gimme never bumped into anything or stepped on the wires snaking across the floor.  She didn't even wag her tail into stuff.  I think that is because of all the early body awareness work we did - so she is just much more aware of her body parts relative to "stuff" in the environment.  Things went so well that we got back to town earlier than I expected.  Very good since I had scheduled an evening private lesson with Pumpkin, my behavior case; the boy is making progress. 

I want to talk about the Rally FrEe seminar before all the impressions fly out of my head.  We went two weeks ago; the weekend before I lost Meaggi.

Rally FrEe, stands for Rally with Freestyle Elements.  Its like a rally course in that it has a course with signs, otherwise it is very different.  In fact, I'd say that's pretty much where the similarity ends.  On a plus note, I think its an excellent way to dip your toes into freestyle.  And especially for those of us who are choreography-challenged.  One very nice thing is that if you enter a trial, you will receive the course 7 - 10 days in advance of the trial.  To be honest, you really need it in advance so you can plan free choice signs - otherwise the transitions will eat you alive.

Almost every sign has some freestyle behavior included.  One-fourth of the signs are free choice, which means you can plug in behaviors you know well and want to showcase.  There are no do-overs.  If you make a mistake, you are expected to pretend that was what you planned on and smoothly transition despite the error - as you would in a freestyle performance.  Also, you start with zero points and earn them along the way.

I really think Rally FrEe requires a lot more precision than rally if you want a decent score.  They also discourage (i.e. you won't earn higher scores) luring type hand motions.  You don't have to use dance like hand motions, but will get better scores sometimes if you do.  You aren't expected to dance through the course - which would be kinda hard anyway, though there are places where you could.

I think Rally FrEe requires more precision than obedience, since the moves are more complex and the team is scored on minute details.  For instance, if you are heeling and the sign calls for a counter-clockwise spin at your side, the dog must both start and end the spin in heel position to get full marks.  Likewise if the dog starts in center-front position, the dog must both start and end the spin in that position. The last sign is always a bow sign, which must be performed in position at your side (depends where they were during approach).  How many of us had taught our dogs to take a bow from in front of us?  Oh, 95%.  Back to the drawing board.

Each sign will have a visible clip on either side that tells you what side the dog should be on when approaching the sign.  If your dog isn't on the correct side, you are going to have a problem correctly performing that sign.  While this sounds easy, it can be really hard to keep it straight and I watched time and time again as teams got mixed up on these very short sample courses of just 4 or 5 signs.  Its also easy to miss a sign, even though you walked it correctly, because there is more stuff out there than just signs and the course may wind back and fourth through itself.

Gimme and I had a lot of fun.  We had a partner assigned and I surely groaned upon hearing this (because of the dismal experience at the last seminar with partners).  However, my partner was very nice and we had a good time together.  I also have to say that Oregonians are much friendlier than people from Washington.  I thought I'd noticed that before, but it was really apparent during this seminar.  Julie Flanery does a great job presenting and is fun - so if she is coming to your area for a Freestyle or Rally FrEe seminar, do sign up.

Gimme did very well in the environment, getting better and better as the weekend went on.  One thing I've known all along is that she has more difficulty with sudden environmental change (SEC).  So, once she became accustomed to working with the other dogs all around, she put most of her attention on me and did well ignoring them.  Sometimes that works to our advantage.

One working session, we were delayed getting in the building, so when the session ended and break was starting, I continued working a few minutes (as did a couple other teams) because we were making headway.  What I didn't realize was that even though Gimme seemed to be focused entirely on me, she was very well aware that other dogs were leaving.  So a minute later when she and I came out of a circle and another dog was moving by us, Gimme reacted.  Dogs had been closer to us than that, so I certainly don't blame the other handler.  Possibly coming out of the circle suprised Gimme too, but I think, more than anything, it was SEC.  She noticed the other dogs leaving, even if I didn't and thus was more likely to be bothered by a dog moving close, even though that proximity hadn't bothered her before.

Lesson learned for me.  I was keeping such a careful watch after that, I started feeling like a hyper-vigilant bobble-head doll.   On that note, another thing I really like about this wonderful new sport is the possibility of video-titling.  All I have to do is recruit two other people who want to do it at the same time and who are all within 200 miles each other.

You can find out more about this new sport at the RallyFrEe Website.