sienna passed her first test in rally-obedience expert calss

yesterday was a very good day for us!!
my little sienna has been mortally afraid of other dogs most of her life due to an attack from a big dog when she was 5 mos. old.
she had spells of panic, when all she could do was sit and stare vacantly in front of her, not hearing or seeing anything, just beacuse a dog barked near her.

i have worked with her to fight this for 2½ years, and there have been successes here and there, but now she seems to be over it completely.

in rally expert class the team (dog and handler) has to perform certain exercises, and at the end the dog must sit still beside the handler, still in the ring, and honor the next participants while they are doing their thing.

little sienna thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, was not even uneasy when this big dog walked past her very close by, barking. (not at her, but from sheer eagerness.)

she passed the test, and i am sooo proud!

place of honor



just outside the ring: 'I love you...'

She has such looks of attentiveness to you and love. Great pictures and congratulations for passing her class and for working through her fear.

I read your lovely story then scrolled down to see that little doll looking up at you. I'm all teary eyed now! Look at the way she looks at you. :lotsaluv:

Her look of absolute adoration when she stares up at you is just beautiful.
You must be so proud of your girl.

Aww! Renate, those are just wonderful photos. I can see from Sienna's posture that she absolutely adores you and trusts you implicitly :lotsaluv:

What a great achievement for both of you.

:w*w:CONGRATULATIONS :mexwav::jmp2::mexwav::w**h**:

Well done both of you. :w**h**:
I went to a Rally-O Workshop on Saturday to learn all about it. Minnie & I just loved it and can't wait to do our first live one. The only problems we had were handler errors:sl*p: Minnie did everything asked of her perfectly. She even demonstated how to walk in heel backwards:grin:

Unfortunately it is still in its infant stages in UK so not too Rallys to go to at the moment.

oh yes, sandra
handler errors.....:roll: I know all about them! we have lots of that here in denmark too.....

one referee said to me this summer: 'you have the most amazing dogs, they'll do everything, probably anything you ask them. why not ask them to do the things they are supposed to do?'.......

I just checked out on youtube what it actually was you do as I thought it was dancing. What you are doing we tried in dog training class. The teacher would give the commands like we were soldiers and she was the sergeant major. Though the dogs were good, half of us didn't know our left from right! :lol:

@pauline
we also do dancing. HTM is actually what we do best, definitely what be like best.
except kandis. she passed the test for Junior Hunter two years ago, and does only that. she does not care much for HTM or obedience.

Congratulations. I also love the way she looks at you. She's so tiny

Congratulations - what a lovely story, Sienna is so focused on you, it is lovely to see.