Parker Does Rally

Our first Rally class was today. Since Parker has done both Basic 1 and Basic 2 and since in both classes I was complemented on how good he was, I rather expected him to do well. Mike also told me that, when they are out for their walks, they do fronts and Parker does them well.

Ha!

We class members walked the course with our dogs in crates. Parker hopped right into one when asked and never made a peep while I was gone, although I could see he had his eye on me the whole time. Then we got numbers and took turns on the course. It was a fairly basic one with right angled turns, 270 turns, 360 turns, a moving down (the dog isn’t supposed to sit before doing the down), couple of weaving patterns, stops with finishes to the left, and the dreaded fronts -- call the dog to the front, step back one, two, three steps, with the dog hopping up and following in front and sitting.

When it was our turn, Parker started out in a good sit next to me. That was about the only good thing he did. I had chicken and he knew it. He did almost the entire course walking backward, nosing my chicken hand. When it was time for the fronts, he sat everywhere but in front, usually doing a 360 spin between them. Several times he grabbed the leash in his mouth and shook it, as if to remind me that he needed more chicken.

The second time we went through the course, I kept the chicken in my pocket and he did better. Not well, but better.

The instructor who was walking by me on the second go round said we had a lot to work on over the next week.

The really scary part is that they said for the first four weeks of the class, we’d be doing novice to advanced courses, and for the second four weeks, we’d have advanced to excellent courses.

Yikes!