Were we lucky, or was it something more?
On Sunday 25th August, I
drove around 130 miles after getting up at 5am to compete in a TD Rally trial
with three of my collies. It was our first trial as a competitor and despite my
nerves we managed six qualifying rounds with very respectable scores. This blog
is a reflection on our day together, and
why I think it was more than luck to gain such exciting results. Ultimately,
choosing warm-up exercises to suit each individual dog added to a foundation of
key skills helped us despite our lack of formal trialling experience.
TD Rally
Talking Dogs Rally is one of
several Rally-Obedience sports in the UK, and is closely based on Bud Kramer's
original idea of a free-flowing 'doodle' incorporating various exercises to
warm dogs up for competition. You can find out more about TD Rally here.
I've been learning about and training Rally exercises with my collies for about
6 years now after reading about the sport in Pam Dennison's inspiring book
"Bringing Light to Shadow" (short review). I run classes in Rally and
have been a qualified Level 2 KC/APDT UK Rally judge for several years now, but
due to the majority of trials being over a day's travel away haven't had much
chance to compete.
Rally courses (of any
flavour) are made up of numbered stations. Each team (human + dog) have to
navigate the course in their own time, undertaking the exercise at each
station. For example the dog may have to sit, lie down and then sit before
moving on with the handler. Handlers are encouraged to talk to and praise their
canine team member. In the lower levels food and toy rewards can be given
although not used as bribes! Each round is scored out of 200 (or 210 with a
bonus exercise) points and you lose points for various errors/faults. 170/200
is the minimum qualifying score.
I made the decision early in
2013 to focus on TD Rally for a number of reasons, primarily because the
explicit focus on reward based modern training methods and building a happy
relationship between handler and canine partner fits well with my own training
ethos. I also appreciate that disabled dogs (and handlers!) are explicitly
accommodated within the rules and attitudes of the sport. For example, one of my
dogs is deaf and part-blind, so the "disability modification"
certificate allows me to use additional hand signals (rather than verbal cues)
and permits me to touch Bronte to gain her attention since I can't call her
name.
Our first trial
When I made the long trip
down to Abbots Ripton for our first live TD Rally competition, I was excited
and nervous, but mostly expecting that we might not get many qualifying scores.
It was going to be a valuable experience and a chance to prepare for the
future. I'm writing this, not because I doubted my dogs or myself, but because
it seemed a reasonable expectation for our first trial. Here's a brief reminder of the dogs who came
with me:
Farah - 8yrs BC, deaf from
birth. Farah came to me about 7 months of age and has probably had the most
training. Together we completed all the KC Good Citizen Awards, took and passed
the Pets As Therapy certification and were an active member of the Tailwaggers
Demonstration Team for four years. Farah is relatively easily spooked by sudden
movements/shadows and struggles in bright sunlight as it can be harder to see
my hand signals. For the past four years Farah has also been rather performance
shy and finds the pressure of people watching rather intense. Its something of
an ongoing project to slowly expand her comfort zone!
Bronte - 5.5yrs BC, deaf and
part-blind from birth. Bronte came to me after spending 3 years in a rescue
centre where she was very happy but rather a wild child! Bronte adores people
and just loves to snuggle. With only having partial sight in one eye (and no
vision in the other) it can be a challenge to keep her attention, and I have to
make sure my hand signals are in her field of vision. New places are intensely
distracting and over excitement results in high pitched squealing and bouncing.
Training with Bronte has focused more on everyday skills, reducing her
separation anxiety and to some extent Rally exercises though we don't practice
nearly enough.
Freya - 2.5 yrs BC, adopted
in December 2012. Freya is affectionately known as my ultra-collie. Keen to
work and up for any challenge she stretches my training skills and demands
faster, more precise information at every turn. Freya came from a travellers site
with a sweet nature and no basic training, but a very keen prey drive instinct.
We've been focusing on every day skills (not chasing after every squirrel in
the forest), focus around distractions and only really started formal Rally
training about three months ago.
If I was to be brutally
honest, I expected Freya to be amazing despite lack of experience, Bronte to
probably just snuggle the judge and steward, and Farah to panic a little at
some point resulting in cuddles in the middle of the ring. Specifically I
figured we might get one qualifying score out of six rounds.
Instead the girlies were
amazing, I could not have asked for more from them. Despite my shoddy handling
in places, all three gave their best in the ring. It was a long day, we left
York at 6am and were at the trial venue from 8.30am to 7pm. All three dogs had
to spend a fair bit of time crated in the car in between walks and competing,
and although TD Rally trials are quiet compared to the agility field, there
were a few barking dogs, a couple of sirens and the usual noises.
Strategies and reflections
Farah
My goal for Farah was to have
her come out of the car, settle in the new environment and perhaps be able to
play with a toy (she stops playing very quickly if at all stressed or nervous).
If we made it into the practice ring and managed a couple of stations I was
willing to call it a success so long as Farah stayed positive and engaged with
me!
What actually happened was
everything I wanted and more. Farah chased her favourite ball near the ring
areas, and came into the practice ring in great form. We've been using some of
her favourite tricks to warm her up and keep things light for both of us. So
our warm-up both outside and inside the ring consisted of the following: nose
touch to hand, paw to foot, paw to hand, spin both directions and finished with
jumping through my arms from behind a couple of times. We raised a lot of
smiles from the other competitors!
I had to pop her back into
the car while I walked the course, and I made sure to use my hand signals and
identify good reward spots on the walk through. I also did some visualisation
and deep breathing at the start of the
course, which I repeated before working Farah in the ring.
We had two rounds, one in the
morning and one in the afternoon. On the morning course Farah was paw perfect!
I mis judged a couple of the signals meaning we lost points for flow and
position, but Farah worked with me all the way round. No panicing at the
flapping barriers (ooops! we never traning for those), the spectators or other
dogs. By the time we finished the bonus
round I was close to tears - I know my amazing little girl can turn out
stupendous performances but its rarely in front of other people. This time it
all came together.
The afternoon was slightly
wobbly for Farah as the sun came out making for rather a lot of suddenly moving
shadows and we had a tiny panic through the slalom exercise. None the less,
Farah coped, came with me when asked and increased in confidence as she moved
on. The joy of TD Rally was being able to reward that amazing achievement right
then with a food reward - it cost us some points but was crucial to building on
Farah's fantastic choice. Both courses were tough - lots of heelwork and moving
stations which are not usually our strong points. I think its fair to say that
the years of foundation work, plus some carefully chosen warm up exercises
definitely paid off for us.
Humorously, Farah made two
attempts to break out of the car during the afternoon. Normally content just to
settle on her mat and watch the world go by, clearly Farah was in the mood to
work and wormed her way past the puppy barrier which was bungeed around the
back of the car! Its hard to be upset when your dog is that keen to get out and
work!
Bronte
Bronte is a very dear and
special dog, large for a collie and with many unique mannerisms. She has come
into her own since we discovered Talking Dogs Scentwork (another blog to come
on that!) growing in confidence, enthusiasm and focus. Bronte struggles with
Rally as sometimes she finds the repetition of exercises difficult. It is as
though having sat several times in a row, Bronte then looks up bemused and asks
if she somehow did it wrong last time? Why am I asking her to sit again! Plus
when really confused, Bronte's default behaviour is to lie down...this is a big
improvement on leaping around and shouting at the top of her considerable
voice, but still not ideal in the Rally ring.
When I brought Bronte out for
a quick walk and a chance to take in the new environment, I noticed that she
was in a great mood but incredibly distracted and unfocused. I decided to try a
new and potentially risky strategy. Scentwork (for which Bronte wears a special
harness) is one of her favourite jobs but it can be difficult to switch her out
of scenting and back into anything else even once the harness has been taken
off. I decided to try doing some scentwork in the hope it would settle her, so off
I headed to hide the little plastic pots of ginger cake! Bronte loved the scentwork and we seemed to
be in a good place together, so back she went into the car before our walk
through.
Both of Bronte's rounds were
in the afternoon, and I was also competing in the same classes with Freya. This
posed some additional problems that I had not anticipated. On the walk through
I was thinking mainly about Bronte (first to run) and her hand signals...which
meant I was not at all prepared for working poor wee Freya right after
wards! Despite Bronte's disabilities she
is excellent at catching treats, so our warm-up was a really good cuddle and
catching pieces of sausage.
The courses were hard! Lots
of combo stations which I've not practiced much (note for the diary) and plenty
of slaloms and spirals which test your ability to keep the dog moving nicely by
your side. We had a few wee moments of distraction but over all I was
delighted. In the second course, Bronte did contemplate visiting the judge for
a moment (lost points for the extra sit as she leaned hopefully in the judge's
direction) but recovered well. The bonus call to heel exercise was paw perfect
right up until Bronte shot past me and began a lap of honour to greet the
spectators - thankfully not too costly a mistake.
Freya
On reflection my expectations
for Freya were rather high. After all, she had very little foundation or
Rally-specific training, had spent a large part of the day in a crate and was
asked to come out and work with no time for a warm-up. Worse still on a toilet
break earlier, Freya had realised there was a large rabbit warren at the far
side of the competition field. All my dogs work with me in my job as a
behaviour consultant and assist in the rehabilitation sessions, for private
clients and for rescue branches. This means they get lots of practice at
focusing on me regardless of anything else that might be going on. Freya of
course has only just started doing this with me, so everything is all rather
new and exciting to her.
Our first round felt
disastrous though the score suggests it was more in my head! I had to rush
Bronte back to the car and swop for Freya, so had very little time to settle her
or me. I really noticed this walking into the ring as there was just no
connection between us. I did a little bit of pattern games to try and remedy
it, but too little too late. We made it round the course, but my hand signals
were really aimed at Bronte (wrong dog!), I was using verbal cues that meant
nothing to either of us (why?!) and at one point we almost fell over each other
*sigh*. Too rushed in every respect, yet that little ultra collie tried her
best to interpret my incoherent stumbling.
Having realised my many
mistakes, and thankfully having more time between dogs in the second course, I
set out to repair our working relationship. Freya and I spent some time just
pottering together and playing with her squeaky ball before we went anywhere near
the practice course. We only did a few behaviours before breaking off for a
cuddle break and by the time we were due in the ring, I could feel that lovely
warm connection with her again. Not
surprisingly this helped enormously! We lost points in the expected places
(still not quite cracked the sit into stand exercise for example) but it flowed
and was enjoyable. Freya even chased her
squeaky ball on a rope for a reward at the end, which is quite something for a
food-obsessed previously starved dog.
Results
Farah: Ace (194/210) and Ace (197/210) (just one rosette away from a potential Award of Excellence...)
Bronte: Outstanding and Ace
Freya: Outstanding and Ace
Future plans
It was an amazing day. I was
already hooked on teaching Rally and practicing on my own, now I'm hooked on
competing too. I loved the friendly welcoming atmosphere. I relished knowing
that I was competing against my own scores, rather than anyone elses. And I really
appreciated being part of a sport where all dogs are welcome regardless of
abilities or breed.
The experience was a great
reminder that good training foundations really do make a huge difference in a
competitive situation, and I need to take time to connect with each of my dogs
as individuals. Farah certainly reminded me that the most important aspect is
having a dog who is keen to work with you, after that its just about the
details. But there is no point nagging a dog into doing any exercise when their
heart just isn't in it. I'm delighted that Farah is confident enough to demand
to work with me, and look forward to seeing what happens at our next trial.
I am super excited that Well Connected Canine will be hosting two TD Rally workshops with Becky Skelhon (co-founder) in October 2013,
and two official trials in 2014, plus we have a regular monthly TD Rally Club
for practice and support. More workshop details here
