The Warragul Obedience Dog Club held its inaugural Triple Rally Trial at Darnum Reserve recently.
More than 230 entrants from all over Victoria attended. Rally (also known as rally obedience or rally-o) is a dog sport based on obedience with a mix of agility skills.
In rally, the handler and dog work their way around a signposted course demonstrating different manoeuvres such as body positions, moving turns, pivots, side-steps, jumps and distance commands.
The main objective of rally is to provide a fast-moving and motivational sport for both the handler and the dog.
Rally courses are built from a set list of stations, and courses can be between 10 to 25 stations in length. Each station includes a sign which instructs the team what to do, and teams are judged on their execution of each station.
Smooth execution and precise heelwork is highly regarded, as is appropriate support and encouragement of the dog from handlers.
There are four levels of skills - novice, advanced, excellent and master. Handlers and dogs must achieve a qualifying score for a pass card.
In novice they must achieve three pass cards with scores of between 75 to 100 to achieve their rally novice title.
Warragul offers rally as part of its training classes and it is proving popular for people of all ages and dogs of all breeds. Rally helps to encourage a great handler/dog connection and is rewarding starting with easier exercises to more challenging levels.
Warragul Obedience Dog Club also offers basic obedience training for beginners, level one, two through to trialling and agility intakes for beginners each year through to trialling.
For more information, contact the club through its website, https://warraguldogclub.org.au/