Sterling
Well-Known Member
Lakota and I did our first big girl Rally match last night amongst many different dogs of all age and sizes with different levels of experience. I can honestly say that classes have paid off! She was such a trooper!! What a blast we had!!
Lucky us, we were second in line in Rally Novice...15 stations and a course that we had never experienced before...pretty scarey! (Remember your first hunter jumper class in a show? Where you had a ring side audience and it was so quiet you could hear a needle fall in a hay stack? :cold: ) Yea...kinda like that. The first team to go in I tried not to watch as she was so lost at the walking of the course, well when she went in with her dog, she was even moreso. So I busied myself in talking to Lakota and getting her revved up for our go. Our turn came up, we walk into the arean, the judge comes up to us ...smiles and says "Good luck. Are you ready?" I get Lakota's attention and tell her "Ready"...she give me the forward and off we go..... Lakota was working so well beside me! I was on cloud 9 !!! It was'nt a perfect go, but the little bit of lag she got behind me at times, I'll take it! I was expecting her to be a little "Lookie-Lou"...but she seemed to tell me "Mommy, you just do your thing and I'll follow and do what you ask!"
: Well when we finished, I was beaming...and I looked down at Lakota and she was grinning at me....you know how your dog grins...that special look, the twinkle in their eyes. What really blew me away was the judge, she was looking right at us and started clapping as she said "Job Well DONE!" Talk about a Wow moment!!! :bgrin :bgrin :bgrin This was just our first time out and I'm sure we'll have many "uh-ohs" but I'm thankful for the wonderful night we had and to be able to share it with my canine soul mate!
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Lucky us, we were second in line in Rally Novice...15 stations and a course that we had never experienced before...pretty scarey! (Remember your first hunter jumper class in a show? Where you had a ring side audience and it was so quiet you could hear a needle fall in a hay stack? :cold: ) Yea...kinda like that. The first team to go in I tried not to watch as she was so lost at the walking of the course, well when she went in with her dog, she was even moreso. So I busied myself in talking to Lakota and getting her revved up for our go. Our turn came up, we walk into the arean, the judge comes up to us ...smiles and says "Good luck. Are you ready?" I get Lakota's attention and tell her "Ready"...she give me the forward and off we go..... Lakota was working so well beside me! I was on cloud 9 !!! It was'nt a perfect go, but the little bit of lag she got behind me at times, I'll take it! I was expecting her to be a little "Lookie-Lou"...but she seemed to tell me "Mommy, you just do your thing and I'll follow and do what you ask!"
