Sunday Rally at Poodle Club

Today I had Sadie out to CKC Rally trials in Etobicoke, held by the Poodle Club of Canada. We were trying
for our first RAE (Rally Advanced Excellent) legs. To qualify for the
RAE title, you must pass both the Advanced and the Excellent class at
the same trial, and you must do that ten times. In other words, you
must get 20 qualifying scores to earn the title.

In our first class today, the Advanced B class, Sadie was handicapped
by the ring nerves of her handler who made some errors, however she
still qualified in a fairly large group, but did not place. In the
second class, Excellent B, I was much more relaxed, Sadie was much
more focused, and she earned her first ever perfect score and placed
third. That's a thing that's a bit frustrating about Rally - you could
get a perfect score all the time and still not place if there are
other dogs with 100s who are faster. So I was thrilled to get a third
place.

On to the next trial and a second perfect score in one day! Sadie
took the Advanced class with that and a lovely fast time to edge out
the other dogs. She was working on a third perfect score, but sadly
got hung up on the backward heeling exercise and we had to redo it,
losing points in the meantime. She still got a nice q of 94 which was
good enough for 2nd place in that Excellent class.

So all told, 4 Qs, 2 perfect scores, 3 placements, and 2 RAE legs.
What a great day for me and my girl. Here she is with all her bling.
She likes her new ball the best of her prizes.