So yesterday we started in Rally Novice again, which was a bit of a pain because loose leash walking has always been a challenge for Quigley. The good thing was that after 5 years of doing Rally, it wasn't so bad during this 4th go-around in the Novice class - I was able to focus mostly on keeping the leash loose and my dog in reasonable heel position instead of having to worry so much about staying on course and performing exercises properly. We scored a 192 and 4th place. The deductions were for two retries ("I really have to do this on leash??? Geez.") and some heeling imperfections.
ASCA just started their rally program last year, and there aren't that many trials, so groups were small. I think there was one dog entered in Excellent, 2 or 3 in Advanced, and about 12 or so in Novice. To my disappointment nobody showed in the Masters class yet, I would have loved to see that.
The next ASCA trial in my areas is on the first weekend of April, hopefully we'll be able to get our remaining 2 Novice legs there.
Nice photos! 
