I have a new performance puppy and have been working on sports foundations with him since he is far too young and immature to work on an agility course. I am also preparing my two older competition dogs to compete in WCRL Rally and Flash Rally sports. As I work on foundational exercises with my puppy, through my green-colored glasses (I’m newer to dog sports), I see a great deal of similarity in the end result of a Flash Rally exercise and many of the agility foundational training items I am working on with my young puppy.
Flash Rally, in particular, has many facets that transfer to agility and agility foundations. In the World of Cynosport Rally Limited (WCRL) Flash Rally, a dog is expected to demonstrate a variety of skills that reflect both skill and teamwork with its handler. Flash Rally is a more fast-paced and spontaneous version of traditional rally with no sits and stays. This format tests both the dog's training and the handler's ability to communicate effectively under pressure. In both types of WCRL Rally, you are allowed to talk to your dog during the competition and cheer them on. It is not quiet and serious like traditional obedience.
Key Skills a Dog Needs to Show in WCRL Rally and Flash Rally:
Heelwork: The dog must maintain a consistent position at the handler's side while moving through the course, demonstrating smooth transitions between different paces (normal, fast, slow).
Focus and Attention: The dog needs to stay focused on the handler, ignore distractions, and respond to commands, even in a high-pressure environment.
Precision in Exercises: The dog should execute the required rally exercises with precision. This includes tasks like stands, spins, pivots, walking backward, and other position changes, often with minimal cues from the handler. These are all useful for warm-ups in agility and foundations.
Responsiveness to Cues: The dog must quickly and accurately respond to both verbal commands and hand signals from the handler. This includes recognizing and executing commands without hesitation. This is great practice for consistent verbals for agility.
Teamwork: The dog and handler must work together seamlessly, with the dog showing a clear understanding of the handler's intentions and movements.
Confidence and Adaptability: Given the spontaneous nature of Flash Rally, the dog needs to be confident and adaptable, able to handle the unexpected and adjust to the handler's cues on the fly.
Speed and Accuracy: While Flash Rally emphasizes a quicker pace, the dog must balance speed with accuracy, completing each exercise correctly without sacrificing precision for speed.
Consistency Across Exercises: The dog must demonstrate consistent performance across a variety of exercises, showing that it can maintain focus and accuracy throughout the entire course.
Competition: Dogs and handlers get experience performing in a ring with an audience, similar to an agility trial. Dogs can start competing at six months old, which makes it a favorite activity for young dog training.
A dog participating in WCRL Flash Rally needs to exhibit a combination of obedience, precision, speed, and strong communication with the handler, all while performing under the pressure of a fast-paced and dynamic environment. So, how does this help an agility dog/handler team?
The skills developed in WCRL Flash Rally can effectively transfer to agility, providing a strong foundation that enhances a dog's performance in this fast-paced sport. Here's how some of the key skills from Flash Rally benefit agility. I added some rally signs below so that you might imagine ways that the two sports intersect in dog training.
In WCRL Rally and Flash Rally, certain signs and exercises are particularly useful for agility, as they help develop the dog’s skills in areas such as direction control, body awareness, and responsiveness to cues. Here are some specific rally signs and how they transfer to agility. Many of them overlap in how the skills transfer. This is not an exhaustive list, but they will help you see the similarities, especially in building foundations for agility. Note the signs with green lines/arrows are Flash Rally signs where the dog is performing the move depicted in green, and the handler is the blue line/arrow. The Rally signs with all blue lines/arrows depict the handler and dog moving together.
1. Heelwork (Positioning and Control):
Transfer to Agility: Heelwork in rally teaches the dog to maintain a consistent position relative to the handler, which can be used in a warm-up session for agility. Movements such as rear-end shuffling to stay in heel position forward, backward, and pivots in both directions. In agility, this skill translates into better control around tight turns and obstacles, ensuring the dog stays on the correct path as well recalling your dog on the course.
2. Focus and Attention:
Transfer to Agility: A high level of focus is critical in agility, where distractions are common, and the dog must remain tuned in to the handler’s cues. The attention developed in rally helps the dog stay engaged with the handler throughout the agility course, leading to fewer errors and better overall performance. This sign transfers to teaching crosses or side changes.
3. Precision in Exercises:
Transfer to Agility: Precision in rally exercises, like position changes and tight maneuvers, is directly applicable to agility, where the dog needs to perform precise movements, such as accurate jumps and weaves. Precision helps reduce faults and improves the dog's ability to navigate complex courses efficiently.
4. Responsiveness to Cues:
Transfer to Agility: Quick and accurate responses to verbal and non-verbal cues are crucial in agility, where split-second decisions can make the difference between a clean run and a fault. The responsiveness honed in rally ensures that the dog reacts swiftly to directional changes and obstacle commands in agility. Relates to wraps in agility.
5. Teamwork:
Transfer to Agility: The teamwork developed in rally strengthens the handler-dog bond, which is vital in agility. In both sports, the dog relies on the handler’s guidance to make quick decisions, and strong teamwork ensures that the dog trusts and follows the handler’s lead without hesitation. Pulls and pushes in agility.
6. Confidence and Adaptability:
Transfer to Agility: Rally teaches the dog to be confident and adaptable, handling new and unexpected challenges on the fly. In agility, this confidence helps the dog tackle unfamiliar or tricky courses with poise, while adaptability is crucial for adjusting to the handler’s cues during high-speed runs. Sends, layering.
7. Speed and Accuracy:
Transfer to Agility: The balance of speed and accuracy emphasized in rally, especially Flash Rally, directly benefits agility. In agility, the dog must complete obstacles quickly but with precision and away from the handler to avoid penalties. The training in rally helps the dog maintain this balance, contributing to faster and cleaner runs. Sends, distance, foundational training, lead out.
8. Consistency Across Exercises:
Transfer to Agility: Consistency is key in both sports. The ability to perform reliably across different exercises in rally ensures that the dog can handle the varied challenges in an agility course with the same level of proficiency, leading to more consistent and successful runs. Distraction, focus. 2nd sign sends and weave concepts.
9. “Right Turn” / “Left Turn”
Transfer to Agility: Mastering directional verbals. These turns teach the dog to follow the handler’s verbal direction changes promptly. In agility, precise turning is crucial for navigating tight courses and ensuring the dog takes the correct path to the next obstacle.
10. “About Turn” / “U-Turn”
Transfer to Agility: About turns and U-turns improve the dog’s ability to perform quick, tight turns. In agility, these skills are essential when negotiating courses that require the dog to pivot sharply around an obstacle or change direction quickly. Handler and dog going in opposite directions.
11. “360° Right / 360° Left”
Transfer to Agility: The 360° turns improve the dog’s balance and coordination while following the handler in tight circles. This directly benefits agility by helping the dog maintain control and speed during sharp turns on the course. In agility it relates to right, left directional, verbal, tight turns, pulls, and pushes.
12. “Spiral Right/Left”
Transfer to Agility: Spirals require the dog to move in a controlled circle around the handler, helping the dog develop spatial awareness and the ability to adjust its stride. In agility, this skill helps with managing obstacles that are closely spaced, ensuring the dog maintains the correct path. In agility directional, tight turn, verbals.
13. “Figure 8”
Transfer to Agility: The figure 8 involves navigating around cones or other markers in a controlled manner, which teaches the dog to adjust speed and positioning based on the handler’s cues. This skill is transferable to agility sequences that require quick changes in direction and precise movements around obstacles. Tight turns, focus, foundations.
14. “Send Over Jump”
Transfer to Agility: This sign is directly related to agility, as it involves sending the dog over a jump from a distance. In agility, being able to send the dog over jumps confidently and from a distance is a key skill that improves the efficiency of the run. Send, jump, parallel motion.
15. “Stand” / “Stand, Stay”
Transfer to Agility: Teaching a dog to stand and stay helps with stability and control. In agility, this can be useful on contact obstacles, where the dog needs to pause momentarily, or at the start line where a steady start is important.
16. “Moving Side Step Right/Left”
Transfer to Agility: This exercise helps the dog learn lateral movement, which is important in agility for weaving through poles or when the handler needs the dog to move sideways to approach an obstacle from a specific angle.
For a full description of the signs, visit Rallydogs.com or refer to the Flash Rally governing document here.
Summary:
The skills developed in WCRL Flash Rally, such as focus, responsiveness, precision, and teamwork, create a strong foundation for agility. These skills help the dog navigate agility courses with better control, faster response times, and greater confidence, ultimately improving performance and increasing the likelihood of success in competitions. In WCRL Rally, treats are allowed after any stationary exercise in the ring! In Flash Rally, there are no stationary exercises, but you can treat your dog at the beginning and end while in the ring. If you are worried that sits, stays, and downs will be a buzz kill for your canine partner, stick to the WCRL Flash Rally signs while they are young.
Agility dog or not, all of these exercises transfer to having a great dog you can live with, take places, and handle in a crowd.
WCRL's Rally offers a veteran class as well, providing dogs that have retired from agility with a venue to continue competing and doing what they love most: being on a team with you!
Note: AKC Rally and other organizations require the same skills, so you are not limited to WCRL. However, the WCRL Flash Rally doesn’t require sits, downs, or stays in the competition ring.
Golden Acres is holding a WCRL Rally trial on October 12, 2024. Click here for information and the premium.
You can also check out our Rally classes!