Rally O and Agility

[DanL]

In looking for more outlets to burn energy off of Gunnar, I started looking into another facility where my one trainer does some police K9 training. They do rally-o and akc agility stuff there. I called the guy up to see how to get Gunnar and Daisy evaluated for placement into classes, and after the holidays we're going to take them up. I'm not sure Daisy is ready for rally-o but she's got her basics down. It'll be the leash handling part that she and my wife will need to get used to. He said if she's got her basics she can go into the class as well. They have expert and beginner dogs all doing the same course.

When we talked about agility, the instructor mentioned he'd watched the police guys doing the course with their dogs. They do it all at a heel, not actually running the course, but using the obstacles as training props. I told him that Gunnar and I don't do it like that, that we run the course and I just point and give verbals for him, and he said that sounds like he's got a good foundation built. So I'm going to let him run the akc course to see what the guy thinks. The only thing we don't do on the K9 course is the weave poles, which we'd have to start from scratch. A funny comment was made about Daisy, he said that "Great Danes don't usually take to agility very well". How true is that. Not that she couldn't learn the course, but it's like turning an aircraft carrier with her. Even a fast sit takes her 5 seconds to get all the parts moving!

It'll be nice to train with a different instructor in a new environment and learn some new ideas and techniques. I'm not sure I can afford it, its like 100-125 for each 8 week session per dog, but we'll figure something out!

[adojrts]

Hi Dan
I am trying to remember if I have ever seen a Dane running agility at trials and I can't say that I have.........now having said that although they may not be very common for agility if she is sound and consideration is taken concerning her size, I see no reason why she can't enjoy it. Actually I just remembered an article that came out in Clean Run about training and competing with Giant breeds. It showed several Danes.
You may want to check out some Giant Breed forums and ask those folks, what the concerns may be etc.
I have trained a I. Wolf Hound for some agility, his owner had no intentions of competing with him, but wanted to have some fun with her dog etc.
We spent a long time teaching him hindend awareness and lowered (started on the ground) blank work before we started any Contact equipment training.
All jumps and contact equipment was very low and we didn't bother teaching him to weave. We all had a great time in class and I was very glad my contact equipment was VERY strong!!!

Good luck and I look forward to hearing about your adventures into agility and Rally.

Lynn

[DanL]

Thanks Lynn. I belong to a dane forum as well, so I'll probe around there and see what people think about agility. I'm more interested in getting Daisy and my wife working together and getting Daisy's ob cleaned up. It'd be nice to get her an ob title at some point. I've been reading the rally stuff this morning and she certainly has the ability to do it.

Of course I'll keep you posted!

[Zoom]

Have fun with that! I'd love to get into Rally and back into agility with Sawyer...I'm trying to decide if Virgo would enjoy those as well or would be happier learning how to be a junior hunter.

[adojrts]

Dan;
I have never competed in Rally, although I have had some training in it. I have never done any competitive Obedience (or had one lesson for obedience lol) , but because of all of the other training, they took it like ducks to water. It was easy and we really enjoyed it. I really should get off my butt and start competing in Rally, especially considering how much my one dog loves it, his tail NEVER stops wagging and is a blur :D

Wishing you the best of luck and a safe and happy Holidays
Lynn

[MafiaPrincess]

I always thought my second dog was going to be a dane. I spent years collecting info on agility and danes. I haven't seen any running in the AAC, the ones I know run in the AKC primarily.

I have some articles you may find useful..
http://www.chromadane.com/AGILITYTRAIN.htm

Proof danes can kick butt at agility
http://www.morgandane.com/home.asp

Darn. I had a bunch of other links I haven't look at in a year.. rest are all dead. I hope the collection of handouts in the first link helps some though.

[DanL]

Nice links, thanks!

I doubt we're going to pursue agility with Daisy. Rally sounds fun and will be a good challenge for her. I'm sure my wife will be uber competitive with me and Gunnar if we're in the same class going for the same results. That's good, and bad, lol!