WCOTC Rally and Obedience

We had a great weekend at the Westmoreland County Obedience Training Club's Rally and Obedience trial. Friday and Saturday were beautiful fall days, and although it rained on Sunday, we still enjoyed a weekend filled with good friends and their canine companions. I was ever so grateful to have many of my new instructors and classmates from WCOTC there to give me guidance and support. They're a great group of people!

Tess made her Rally debut on Friday, earning a fourth place qualifying score in Rally Novice B. Tess also qualified in Rally on Saturday. Tess was a bit confused about why Jazz got to run in two classes in Rally and a class in obedience, but she was a good sport about waiting for her turn in Rally and worked nicely for me. Good girl, Tess!

Jazz's weekend was a whirlwind of green qualifying ribbons! On Friday, Jazz got a third place qualifying score in Rally Excellent B, along with a qualifying score in Rally Advanced B, earning her first RAE leg. She also qualified on Saturday in Rally Excellent B and Rally Advanced B, getting that second RAE leg. Only eight more to go :)

On Saturday, Jazz made her Obedience debut, competing in AKC's new optional titling class of Beginner Novice. I was a bit nervous about this, as we had a potential conflict in rings for Rally and Obedience, but we finished Rally just in time to walk into the Obedience ring with only one dog ahead of us! I was very pleased with Jazz's run in Beginner Novice. She was happy and confident, and after a run-off with a very skilled Lab and her handler, Jazz was awarded first place with a score of 195.5! Jazz went on to win a stuffed toy for High Scoring Dalmatian in the trial...and then won a large trophy for High Scoring Non-Sporting Dog in the trial!! Wow, what a day!

Sunday was Obedience only at the trial, so it was just me and Jazz, back for another run in Beginner Novice. Jazz was obviously worn down from two days of Rally and Obedience, but she again had a nice performance in Beginner Novice, scoring 192.5. She received a crystal apple-shaped bowl for being High Scoring Dalmatian in the trial, and also got an address book and journal for being High Scoring Non-Sporting Dog in the trial.

I'm very encouraged by Jazz's performance in the Obedience ring. She seemed to enjoy it, and we're looking forward to competing again in two weeks and hopefully finishing up her Beginner Novice title. We'll also be working on a couple more RAE legs with Jazz and trying to finish Tess' Rally Novice title that weekend. The girls will also be competing in Rally Pairs for the first time, so I'm going to try to get a video of that for everyone's entertainment!