# Almost There for Rally Master



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Lily and I got 2 more Rally Master legs today for numbers 8 and 9 of ten needed. We had AM/PM trials at my club today. 

For the morning trial the walk through was at 9:00, so for us we had to get up and out fairly early. The course was very fair, but really challenging too. There were two stations with back up 3 steps (one the regular version that shows up in excellent, but also the change of direction version that is unique to Master where you back up 3 steps and then take one or two more back steps in a new direction (left or right)) and it had two stations that involved spin or twist (one just a dog circles to the right (twist) next to the handler and the one where the dog and handler both do a circle to the right side by side. It also had the figure 8 with distractions, which I haven't had in a long time since it is an advanced sign that doesn't often show up outside of advanced. The figure 8 was set up in the middle of the ring to the left of where I had left Lily to wait for the recall over jump/finish/about turn. When I got to where I stopped for the recall over the jump I saw Lily sitting nicely but looking at the bowl with little toys in it. When I told her over she went to the bowl and then came front without taking the jump, so that was a minus ten. She did everything else but had a lot of out of positions and the spin/twists were not great, but we qualified with a 79.

The afternoon course was also appropriately challenging, but had only one back up 3 steps and only one spin. Also since it was the afternoon and Lily had taken a good nap after we finished in the morning we did much better and got a 96 for a fourth place. We will be having another AM/PM rally trial in early February and the judge is the former president of our club. She has a sharp pencil, but her courses are always fair and she is a very consistent judge for all the entrants. Hopefully we will finish Master then and maybe give a triple Q a try in the afternoon that day. If we are going to get to the RACh with any seriousness we need more 96s in Master though.

I stayed after we finished Master to watch advanced and intermediate because students from my classes were entered. Everybody qualified, but I am most happy for my good friend (and student) and her Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier who got two 99s and two first places in Intermediate today.


----------



## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

Congratulations to you and Lily - what a talented team. The work you describe sounds very difficult to me (just a pet owner here) and it is wonderful that you did so well. One more to go - yeah. Looking forward to Feb and hopefully more initials after Lily's name in your sig. Go on now - Cheers!


----------



## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Wowie, congrats, Catherine and Lily! :adore: You are almost there to another title! So you have to have the Master title to do triple Q? 

Who were your judges today? It sounds like the first course was very challenging! 

Also, congrats to your students on doing exceptionally well! It's very nice that you stayed to support them. My trainer has never stayed to see me compete :violin:


----------



## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

Congratulations for your success - both yours and Lily's together, and that of your students' .


----------



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Fabulous. With Lily and you earning 2 more legs and your students doing so well you have lots to celebrate. I hope you get your last leg to earn your title at the next trial. 

That special back up 3 steps then change direction and back up 3 more sounds challenging.


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

zooeysmom said:


> Wowie, congrats, Catherine and Lily! :adore: You are almost there to another title! So you have to have the Master title to do triple Q?
> 
> Who were your judges today? It sounds like the first course was very challenging!
> 
> Also, congrats to your students on doing exceptionally well! It's very nice that you stayed to support them. My trainer has never stayed to see me compete :violin:



For you when you get to that point I would suggest that you finish RE and then go on to do triple Qs. Since you need 20 of them you will earn 2 RAEs in the process and get RM2 as well. When Lily and I started under the old point schedule it made more sense to me to finish RM and get her more comfortable with those new signs than to push for points that would have been very hard to her in Master. Now that I see signs she is more comfortable I will test run doing a triple Q in our PM trial in February, hopefully having finished RM in the AM that same day.


Our judge was the same judge for both trials. She is local and very very nice. She teaches a rally class further east and a lot of the people who entered go to her class, so those teams had special challenges. The same judge will be at a Thursday evening trial in February for the Long Island Golden Retriever Club, so my students who got two legs yesterday can't enter there for their titles since they need a different judge. I could enter and try to finish RM there, but think I will wait for my club's AM/PM trial that same weekend.


Skylar that master back up sign that is different is back up 3 steps then change direction (left or right) and do one or two more steps back, so thankfully it is not as bad as it sounds.


Weather permitting I will take Lily back down to New Jersey for their January 6th rally match and we will do some serious practice on those spin/twist and back up signs that have gotten muddied together recently because of my signal confusion. I am going to run a bunch of rally run thru/match type sessions for my students (and me) before the home trial in February too.


Thank you everyone for your kind words for me and my special girlie!


----------



## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

I am looking forward to a post from you saying that Lily has her Rally Masters. I love how Lily is so animated and playful but obviously can settle down and work.


----------



## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

I am so excited for you! Just, wow! You're such an inspiration to me. I never would have tried dog sports without all your encouragement and stories. Go, team, go!


----------



## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Click-N-Treat said:


> I am so excited for you! Just, wow! You're such an inspiration to me. I never would have tried dog sports without all your encouragement and stories. Go, team, go!


Same here, Click! Catherine, you have inspired me and so many others. Thank you for always sharing your experiences and wisdom so generously :love2:


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Thanks all. I've always been a pay it forward kind of person, so seeing my friends doing well in the real world and here on PF floats my boat too.


----------



## mashaphan (Sep 4, 2014)

Special congrats to the Wheaten! Terriers (having had an Airedale) can be tough!
Our trainers are usually around for the students.but then they are usually showing as well. (they make a point to be there for the novices,if at all possible)

I (as well as Catherine :adore am happy to see our March trials move to a new bldg. The old one was downright awful,and I had marked it off as even possible for showing Otter (IF we ever get to trials!). The venue is very important,I have found.We are resting for the winter,with uncertain upstate NY weather,and dark evenings for driving to/from classes.

So Queen-of-all-she surveys will likely be working on her RACH when nexty we meet!

Martha,CheWhippet and Otter WildMan


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Yes if we are going to RACh we will be working it by March. I would also enter Javelin to finish off the BN. What is the name of the new building? I would love to see some pictures of it.


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Yes if we are going to RACh we will be working it by March. I would also enter Javelin to finish off the BN. What is the name of the new building? I would love to see some pictures of it.


----------



## mashaphan (Sep 4, 2014)

Sorry for the delay-library was closed for 3 days! I believe it is the Empire Expo center. I have not been in it myself,as it just opened in Aug at the NYS Fair,but I believe they has a skating rink in it for the fair. I googled it when my comrade announced the March shows' moving (to scout the location,as you know I am directionally challenged:ahhhhh-hope they have their own parking area-looks nice!

Martha,Che and WildMan (who is now 2yrs,2 days!)


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Lily and I went back down to New Jersey for a rally match today (the two poodles and I went there last week for an obedience match). I signed us up for one round each in the advanced and excellent rings and two times in the master ring. This will somewhat resemble our next rally entries for an AM/PM pair of trials in early February. I still have to fill out my entry form, but will be doing Master only in the AM trial to finish the RM title (hopefully) and then in the afternoon we will give Advanced/Excellent/Master a go for a triple Q in the afternoon. At this point I am still not totally sure about pursuing the RACh title since I need to know that we will be able to get outstanding scores not just in advanced and excellent but also master. We almost always get in the very high 90s in advanced, the mid to high 90s in excellent, but so far have had a few NQ runs and only cracked 90 twice in master (although the last time out we got a 96).


The excellent course today was really interesting and Lily did a great job with it. The person who designed and judged the course had really nice things to say about Lily's handling of it. There was a couple there with a spoo who ran in the advanced course who watched us and had great things to say about Lily's work in that course too. The master course had one spin to the left next to the handler and the side by side dog and handler spin to the left which is especially challenging for us. We also had back up 3 steps in the excellent course and back up 3 steps/leave dog at stand/call to heel (a variation of the moving stand in utility) in master. Since working on the spin and twist have corrupted my back up 3 steps signal I was really happy that Lily backed up instead of spinning as she had been doing. The master course also had stand dog/leave/sit/call front/finish (which is essentially derived from the utility signals) and the send to cone/return to dog/forward (which is related to the utility go out) so even though we are not thinking about utility for a title anymore I am happy that I didn't have to teach those signs that are related to it from scratch to do rally.


I think Lily was very happy to have a girl's day out without Javelin (who was ecstatic when we got home).


----------



## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Sounds like a very successful girls day out! I often wonder how Frosty would handle doing more than one run in a day if we ever move up to RE.


----------



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Sounds like the girls had a great day today.


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

zooeysmom said:


> Sounds like a very successful girls day out! I often wonder how Frosty would handle doing more than one run in a day if we ever move up to RE.


Do you have AM/PM trials in your area? We have those for rally quite often and if you have that chance it might help you gauge Frosty's endurance for RAE and eventually RACh triple Qs. We took our runs in the order of advanced, excellent, master and master (just based on when each ring opened up for us). Each entry gave enough time to do the course twice. By the time we went through the master course the fourth time it was pretty clear that Lily had run out of spins and sort of had had it, but with a bit of coaxing (more than I would ever want to do in a trial) she stuck with me.


----------



## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Yes, we do have occasional AM/PM trials. However, it's hard to find the combination of them being indoors with a good judge (or judges)! But, that is a very good idea to see if he can handle it. For Maizie in barn hunt, she is pretty much done after one trial.


----------



## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Noelle and I are signed up for our first AM/PM trial. I hadn't thought of using it as an endurance test for RAE and TQ runs. That's a good idea. 

I know it in my bones, deep in my bones, that Lily is going to make you proud at your next trial. I just... do. And we'll toast that Rally Master title. Yes, yes, yes!


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Each dog is different in terms of how they take to being in a crate waiting for their turn, doing more than one event in a day, whether they need one ring trials or big multi ring trials (sometimes it can be too quiet) and for how many days they want to work. Lily often is a bit of a flake the first trial but then gets better over the course of 2 or 3 days. Four day trials would definitely be too much for her at this point. What I hope to build in Javelin is ability to concentrate in multi-ring settings and to have endurance for 3-4 day trials. So far he has come a long way for the multi-ring focus issues, but we haven't tested endurance in trial type settings, but we have done several 2-4 day workshops. He has gotten lots better about being in a crate in a reasonably relaxed state of mind. I do wish he would learn to respect the boundaries of soft crates though. Lily would stay in a crate even with the door open if I asked her to.


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Two of my friends and I, my training assistant and one of my club's other instructors rented an obedience practice ring at a facility nearby our club this morning for two hours. The three of us often work together at our club on Friday mornings and we are really good friends with very similar training views, so since I have the first three Mondays of January off we decided we would get this time in a different place to proof some of our work. I brought both Lily and Javelin, Kathleen brought two of her Cavaliers and Cathy brought one of her Aussies (yes we are all Catherine, Kathleen and Cathy!). We took turns in our ring space, spent some time with two or three dogs in the ring and did work outside the ring. I think we all feel like our dogs got a great benefit from this time even though each dog did very different work while we were there.


I did not do a huge amount with Lily who seems a bit tired from our outing yesterday. I did back up three steps, spin to the left, twist to the right, the side by side spin to the left and the recall over the jump using a broad jump (which we haven't had in master, but could see). Since this venue is not a place that Lily loves very well having her do those things in the space we were in was wonderful!


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Lily came along for the rental time with Javelin and my friends and their dogs so I could work on spin, twist and back up 3 steps. I have decided to use no signal for back up 3 steps at all for now. I worked on reinforcing that and also worked on cleaning up the various versions of back up 3 steps and then 1 or 2 steps to the left or right that are in Master. I also did the recall over the jump with distractions on the floor. Lily did great with everything and I try hard not to drill her much on things she is doing well since she is likely to change her response if I ask for too many repeats (I think she decides she must have been wrong the first times so she tries something different.).


----------



## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Noelle is just like Lily in that regard. If she gets it right, repeating only makes her wonder if she screwed up somewhere and changes what she does. I'm glad to hear using no hand signal for backup is working for you. We're working on back up three steps, too and it's hard not to remember to move my hands. But, if I move my hands, she spins. Keep up the awesome work.


----------

