Kona Earned her Rally Excellent Title this weekend!

[GBK]

Kona CGC RE and I had such a Wonderful Weekend. She completed her Rally Excellent Title with a 92 score on Sat. and a 94 out of 100 score on Sun. If the little rascal had done the moving down all the way the first time though, we would have scored 97 on Sunday and placed! We are going to try out Agility next, I signed her up for an intro class to see if she likes it our not. We watched some amazing dogs on Sunday run the Agility courses, looks like FUN.

Five of us competed this weekend, they are in the picture in the middle. What I think is great is that out of the five, four are mixed breeds competing in AKC Rally :) The first is Cooper, he is a "Frug" frenchie and pug, next is Sadie, she is a Goldendoodle, she won second place on Sat and first place on Sunday in NoviceA. My Kona is next, then our best friend Skylar who is a Snauzer, and last but not least is Otis, he is a French Mastiff and English Mastiff mix.

A little rainy on Sat but Sun was beautiful, sunrises were spectacular through our Red Rock area. The Donkey is another story...... I really wanted to get some pics of them as I had seen a few on my way out each morning. On the way home, there were bunches of them. I stopped on the other side of the road, snapped a few pictures and then Kona saw them and all heck broke loose! As she barked her head off, the donkey started making a bee line over to us. Before I could get rid of the camer, roll up the window and put the car in drive this guy was 12 inches from my face looking in the window at the Kona. I looked at him, he looked at me and I finally got the car in drive and got out of there LOL I guess I will be doing my animal watching sans dogs next time ;)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations, and thanks for making us all proud!

[GBK]

OHhh, I wish you were closer too Linda!!!! Yes, REA is a challenge and I may only consider with my Kona Girl :)
We will see with Buddy.........

I train my two together in class, one at a time through the course, it can be such fun! I only compete with one at a time. I tried to do a competition with both, but it was way to stressfull to me, with all the arm bands and having to crate them as I took one through the walk through and competition. Now I only do one one each day of the weekend or each two days of the weekend and the other one on the next two day trial. It has worked out really well this way. I can give my whole attention to the dog I have for that competition and they really seem to appreciate it!!!!!!

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

Well, to get 92 and 94 you didn't have to do too many redos!! I wish I wasn't so far away so I could watch you compete. I want to continue on with Webber but I really need to start Family manners and CGC with my second doodle. She is almost 8 months old and I have been working with her without a class. It really is her turn. Fortunately, she is more compliant than Webber was. He is a guy who loves a job. REA sounds like a real challenge!

[GBK]

Linda, yes, that is the spiral :) Buddy is excellent at the 360 and Kona has gotten really good too, she used to jump up and hop the turn, but with my hand signals she is now understanding what I want from her.

Oh, I so understand not going all the way down !!!! We had a moving down on Sundays comp. and she only went halfway down as I was walking around her. I had to ask for a redo, and she went down on the second chance. If you don't ask for a redo and just go on it is 10 points off for not doing the station correctly, if you do ask for a redo, it is only 3 points off if they do it right the second time. Thankfully, she did listen to me the second time.

Yes, there is the REA that we can shoot for. You have to compete in the Excellent and Advanced on the same day and qualify with at least a 70 qualifying score in each one to get a leg. You need 10 legs to max out in REA.
We are going to check out the Agility next and maybe dabble now and then in the RAE. They will tell me what direction we will go in :)

[GBK]

Linda, I am so proud of all of our mixed breeds that are competing!!!! Out of our training group only ONE was pure bred, the rest were mixes. I love it!!!! It goes to show what great dogs all dogs are. And I would absolutely buy a pure bred poodle from a reputable breeder, but I will ALWAYS have my labraoodles and cockapoos. They fit my lifestyle and personality :)

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

Isn't that the spiral, left or right ? I get dizzy too, and the 360...I can't remember when to come out and once, did two 360s!! Webber was fine but I was completely disoriented. He can turn on a dime and I can fall over. On the halt-sit-down-sit, Webber wouldn't put his elbows on the floor...he knew I was just going to ask him to sit so why should he go all the way down! In Therapy Dog testing Webber did a good job of ignoring the food but your Rally classes are much more advanced than we did, so I don't know what he would do in Rally. Do you have more you can do after the RE award or have you hit the top?

[GBK]

Kyoko, when we first started I would squish hot dog in my hand and fingernails hoping to keep attention :) I still will hold beef jerky or whatever smelly treat they like in my hand before we compete.

In practice now, they never get their reward until they finish the whole course. I even did the honor with Buddy in practice after going through the course on Monday and then gave the treat.

I have to say I was so proud of Kond in the honor. This lady asked me if it was OK if she followed me while I honored for her. I said sure, not knowing why she would ask me this question. Well her do barked the whole way throught the course!!!!! Kona did her sit stay and never wavered in her attention to me, I was really proud, she does like to bark when other dogs bark, and she never waivered!!!!!!!

[GBK]

OMG Linda, those cones are the worst. Especially with a smaller dog, you get so dizzy trying to make sure they are heeling next to you :) The worst is the one you have to circle three cones, two, one and forward, can't remember that sign name. We had both a figure eight and and offset, thank gosh it was only toys and no food! She has that Lab instinct for sniffing out anything food!!!!! I lost her on Sat. after the first sign to something that smelled really good! But she came back to me and did soooo great.

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

PS It is totally cool that you guys represented doodles in an AKC competition that historically excluded mixed breed dogs. Thanks for that.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Wild Burros! Interesting. Oh my. I would have done the same thing you did... get out of there. You never know what would have happened. Best friends or big fight. My sisters dog was in LOVE with a cow. The cow was in love with the lab. Best friends. Fluke I guess.
We have raccoons and deers in Ohio. No Burros. Lucky you.