This isn’t really a book to sit and read. There are a few short chapters on rally, but it’s mostly filled with course maps. The author, Charles Kramer is well known as being the person who made rally into a ‘real’ event.
Rally (or “rally-o” or “rally obedience” etc) is an activity where signs on the floor direct a dog and handler team throughout the course. The signs tell the team when to turn, when to change pace and to do things like have the dog sit while the handler walks around the dog. Some teams use it as a step towards competition obedience, and others enjoy it for what it is.
Rally is all about heeling!
In this book, I enjoyed the first few chapters on course design. I design a lot of courses for classes, practices and for 4-H rally events. I always appreciate more tips on how to do a better job.
In both agility and rally there’s a concept called “nested courses.” A skilled judge figures out how to run multiple levels or multiple activities with moving as little equipment as possible between each change. For Rally, that means making it so you only have to move a few signs as you change between the 3+ different skill levels. This ends up saving a lot of time throughout the day!
The tips I got for making a nested course have saved me hours of time this summer while judging at various 4-H fun matches and county fairs! Other books I’ve read on rally have been more about training, which is probably a more popular and important topic than course design.
I think this book would be useful for a judge or instructor, but I don’t know that the average rally participant would enjoy reading it.