So excited!

[Sandy in CT]

Thrilled by an AKC email yesterday afternoon - we had competed in our first Rally last Fall and placed 2nd. Had planned on entering a few more competitions in the Fall but never got the entries done in time and of course, now everything is off. AKC is doing 'virtual' competitions through the end of December for Rally Novice! YEAH!!!!!

They are offering 5 courses to choose from and provide the map as well as where they want a camera set up. We can do a course, upload a video to You-Tube, complete an entry and of course, pay a fee. The video will be forwarded to a judge to review.

I have the courses and all signs printed out. Have a laminate machine from when the kids were playing sports years ago so just need to pull it out, see what I need for supplies. I ordered some cones, some sign holders and numbers, now just have to wait till it arrives and we will see what happens with it!

So excited to be able to work towards his RN so we can get working on Intermediate/Advanced. Is there any difference other than the jump for those two levels? Why opt for one over the other?

 

[Ann]

What a great idea, Sandy! A fun way to learn, improve and earn titles! And there goes your boredom!

 

[Chris]

That's fantastic!! I wish they did it for the other levels.

 

[Calliesmom]

Thrilled by an AKC email yesterday afternoon - we had competed in our first Rally last Fall and placed 2nd. Had planned on entering a few more competitions in the Fall but never got the entries done in time and of course, now everything is off. AKC is doing 'virtual' competitions through the end of December for Rally Novice! YEAH!!!!!

They are offering 5 courses to choose from and provide the map as well as where they want a camera set up. We can do a course, upload a video to You-Tube, complete an entry and of course, pay a fee. The video will be forwarded to a judge to review.

I have the courses and all signs printed out. Have a laminate machine from when the kids were playing sports years ago so just need to pull it out, see what I need for supplies. I ordered some cones, some sign holders and numbers, now just have to wait till it arrives and we will see what happens with it!

So excited to be able to work towards his RN so we can get working on Intermediate/Advanced. Is there any difference other than the jump for those two levels? Why opt for one over the other?

I also saw that- all mine are out of Novice. I believe that you can pretty well judge a Novice course from one position but if you have competed in Rally, you know that the judge moves along the course so that they can view all the positions/maneuvers that the handler and dog must complete. I think that would be more challenging for the higher courses.
Intermediate courses are the same as Advanced courses except that Intermediate is on leash while Advanced is off leash and the jump in the Advanced course is replaced by a different sign in the Intermediate course. The Intermediate title is not required to compete in Advanced but Advanced is required to compete in Excellent.
Really, a lot of people would get their 3 Novice Qs and move into Advanced but their dogs weren't ready to be off leash so Intermediate is a great transition class so you can learn and do all the Advanced signs without also needing to worry about your dog staying with you off leash.
I actually left Cran and Dix in Novice for a show or two because I didn't think that they were ready to be off leash. Cran proved me wrong while failing to qualify in Beginner Novice as he left his sit stay position to heel with me around the ring. I would have put Jocu in Intermediate after he got his Novice title but it didn't exist at that time. I did put him in Advanced even though I didn't think he was ready and he did Q but it could have been better. I was happy when AKC changed things so that he could compete in Intermediate so he only needs 1 more Q to get that title.

 

[Piper's mom]

The CKC is so *** backwards and was incredibly behind on things before all the COVID 19 (they did a big IT change and literally messed EVERYTHING up. I'm still waiting for Piper's title from last November for his OTCH (this is the AKC's Utility title I believe) and with everything shut down in Toronto I'll be lucky if I even see it this year. There's absolutely no way they'd be able to do anything like this. Hopefully there's not too much of a fee seeing as how you have to do all the work! Lol
It is a great way to motivate people to keep on working their dogs.

 

[Calliesmom]

The CKC is so *** backwards and was incredibly behind on things before all the COVID 19 (they did a big IT change and literally messed EVERYTHING up. I'm still waiting for Piper's title from last November for his OTCH (this is the AKC's Utility title I believe) and with everything shut down in Toronto I'll be lucky if I even see it this year. There's absolutely no way they'd be able to do anything like this. Hopefully there's not too much of a fee seeing as how you have to do all the work! Lol
It is a great way to motivate people to keep on working their dogs.

I'm sure it will be like a regular entry fee. OtCH here means that you have to have your Utility title and then additional requirements including points and several first places in Utility and Open.