Blaze’s Off Leash Rally Adventure.

A year ago Blaze finished his Level 1 (APDT) rally title. Last November he finished his Rally Novice (AKC) title.  That left us with not much else he could do while on leash. We still could try UKC rally or tracking and non-titling AKC subnovice classes.

Blaze has an abnormal level of hyperactivity and impulsivity problems. We didn’t know this for a long time, it really looked like a training problem. We tried agility and various other sport for years with not too great of success.

He has improved over his life with training and medication, but he’s still far from a normal dog. When off leash, the opportunities of the world are so great and he really just can’t resist.  It sounds like a training problem. In 2007 we hit on a medication combination that suddenly had him -not- running away, he would do everything he was asked and suddenly performed 10x better without any additional training (staying no matter what happened, recalling from all situations, dropping the toys during fetch games, sleeping!). That soon stopped working and his behavior deteriorated.

Our last attempt at off leash dog shows was in August 2003 when we were entered in a USDAA junior handlers agility class. We did the first two jumps and then he ran out around and out of the ring where someone was able to grab him before he was running loose on the huge state fairgrounds.  We haven’t tried an off leash trial since then, though we had tried classes for a little while longer (without success).

Earlier this month we helped host a rally trial. I thought maybe we would try Level 2 rally.  We had solid barriers (no ring gates), it was a familiar environment, and actual walls on 3 sides of the ring.  But I got busy and we didn’t do as much training as I had planned.

On the day of the trial, he was doing beautifully and was consistently attentive even with poor warm up and not much time due to all the trial-running tasks I was doing.   With the help of some friends we entered Level 2.

Blaze at AKC rally Nov 2012

We begged half a sandwich to use (bread his his favorite reinforcer) and I tossed him some pieces while we waited to go in the ring.  He launched himself toward the food and hit my finger in just the right spot to cause a lot of bleeding.   I tried to stop the bleeding…but didn’t really have time to deal with it before our turn.  And he was so great. He stayed right with me. I stopped to feed him once or twice (very carefully).  I had to use my right hand to signal, my left was dripping blood.   At one point I did signal with my left hand and the flying blood prompted him to jump up as he tried to catch it.   We finished, and it was really, really great.   A 208 (out of 210) and second place!

Our off leash options are growing. If we do another trial this year, I hope he will be well enough to run. The thought is motivating us to do more training to actually be prepared.  Our success last week was mostly luck, he’s had a lot of training in the past but I haven’t specifically trained him for that rally skill set in many, many years.