Sample Courses
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Below you will find links to full courses and “skills courses”. These are short courses that you can set up to practice specific skills.
Sample Novice and Intermediate Competition Courses
Sample Intermediate and Adv/Champion Competition Courses
“Just for Fun” Mini Course
The name says it all!
“Make it Straight” Mini Course
Use training gates to create straight positions and barrels to create a circle & remind the dog to keep his rear in toward the handler.
Position Skills Course (Fun!)
Both dog and the handler change positions in this course. There are also some path changes for the team along with 3 stations next to each other!
“Thru to Position” Skills Course
When practicing this course, focus not only on the dog passing thru your legs but on where he ends up and whether he is meeting the criteria of that position.
Reward your dog more generously and frequently for getting into and remaining in position than you would for passing thru your legs. This will help the dog understand that it’s not just about passing through your legs but the behavior includes moving into a specific position, such as left or right side heel. In the intermediate levels that may include center position as well.
“Right Side” Skills Course
For many of us, our performance sport training includes a lot of left side heelwork. From young puppies or from the time we first started working with our dogs, we’ve worked to create a lot of value in the left side of the handler. It can be easy to create so much value and muscle memory that the dog may have difficulty working on the right side.
In Rally-FrEe, not only does the dog need to work on the left and right side of the handler but in front of and behind the handler as well. All 4 of these positions need to be not only familiar to our dogs but comfortable to remain in not only going forward but in any direction and with some duration.
In practicing a course the other day I realized that Kashi’s right side work was not as confident as it had been just a few weeks ago, and I realized that as much as I try to work her on all 4 sides on a regular basis, I too tended to default to having her on my left more often than the other positions.
So time to spend a little more time on right side heelwork! Have Fun!
Novice Course
Sample Novice course. This is a full course.