This morning I was inspired to find something else to compete in with the skinny boys. Its nearly impossible to find agility classes that i can actually get to around here and I don't think we're quite ready for obedience yet.

Rally looks fun. I'm looking on youtube for Novice Rally videos and it looks like Perry could do all of that, as long as we do a little improvement on downs. Marco... would probably invent a way of walking on two legs just for the ringtime. I know he "can" do all the stuff, i don't know that he will

My main worry is that I'll be a horrible confused handler! Watching Rally videos makes me dizzy with all the going back and forth in circles. i remember at some holiday party in dog class we once had a fun run with Rally cards just to see who could figure it out... and I was horribly confused by the card that said "sit down". I was wondering if they meant me. I'm serious.

Oh you'll have fun! I love Rally (and luckily, so does Quigley )! The best thing about it is that there is no limitation on verbally communicating with your dog, hand signals, patting your leg, etc., so in that regard it's easier than traditional obedience.

Don't worry about being confused about the course, you'll get used to it fairly quickly once you've had a chance to work on it in practice in a Rally class. And at a trial you have some time to walk the course (without the dog) before judging begins, so you don't go out unprepared.

Of course that still doesn't preclude making mistakes at trials (I'm the best example for that ), but it's all in good fun.

You can look at descriptions for each exercise sign here:
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/about/board_minutes/Rally_Regulations.pdf
(Starting on page 10 of the "Rally" part)