Freckle and Mary-Doug training at Vanier Park

This weekend Freckle and I will be competing in Rally Obedience, a new dog sport and fun obedience trial where handlers can talk to their dogs and where you can compete with mixed breed dogs or unregistered purebreds. It’s the first trial that either of us will have done; at least, I assume it’s Freckle’s first – since she’s a rescue, I’ll never really know.

I admit, I’m a bit nervous – wondering if I’ll remember the course, wondering if Freckle will be too distracted by the other dogs and competitors. Like most boxers I’ve known, she has a bit of ADHD in her – and it usually comes out when there are lots of things to distract her. A quick search on youtube and Google uncovered only one boxer, Bounce, doing Rally O. Hmmm … I wonder if there’s a reason for this? Bounce is really good, very cute and apply named.

We’ll be doing our first leg of three in Novice A. Novice A is the class for a handler (that’s me) who hasn’t taken a dog to a title yet. We need to be passed by three different judges in three separate trials to get Freckle’s first title. Novice level is on-leash and tests the dog’s understanding of basic commands. We have a full day seminar to learn the rules, ask questions, and get to know the course. I found a good video of a gorgeous Newfoundland dog doing the Novice A exercises. This  sheltie is prancing through his round.

Freckle and I have been working hard, trying to fine tune our “performance.” That means Freckle has to REALLY pay attention when we’re doing our heel work, as she has a habit of checking out the goings on around us. Sometimes she surges ahead a bit, not realizing I’ve come to a halt and that she’s to sit smack down, quickly. Sometimes she’s spot on, and sometimes she realizes too late that I’ve stopped. Then she scootches back into position, but that’s a no-no in the ring. We’ll be practising lots over the next week and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

For a look at what NOT to do in the ring, check out Alvin, the sweetest looking young English bulldog, doing his Rally O round. He has a great sense of humour. I wouldn’t put it past Freckle to do a round just like Alvin’s!

I’ve been thinking lately about how real the online world is. Saturday night I went to a party and talked at length with one of my real world friends, Dean. It was fun because we keep up with each others’ goings on primarily through Facebook and Twitter, and the occasional email, even though we live and work within the same few square miles of Vancouver. We both have busy lives, and if it weren’t for our online connection, we’d be catching up once a year at the AGM of the Health Libraries Association of BC.

This had me thinking of other such connections in my online world:

• During one of the FOC08 course meetings using Elluminator, I discovered another participant, Daryl, who lives on the other side of the world has a boxer – his a white, mine a fawn.
• I recently read a tweet by the aforementioned real life friend, Dean – “6 Reasons to reject the iPhone” – which turns out to be a blog post by FOC08’s facilitator, Leigh Blackall.
• A few years ago, I was invited to dinner with a Boxer Mailing List friend as she passed through Vancouver on her way to a job in Alaska. One of the other dinner guests turned out to be a real life friend I’d lost touch with and hadn’t seen in about 10 years. We knew Susan from very different circles, both of  which were online communities (boxer lovers; Xena fans). (Susan’s suicide rocked both online communities several years ago.)
• At one of my dog classes a few months ago, I met Dug with whom I’d worked on a research project – all our previous interactions had been online until we met through our dogs in real life.
• Marta, one of my Facebook friends, is someone I met originally online through boxer connections when my partner and I were looking for our first rescue girl, Sassy. We now get together in the real world when she’s in town visiting her mother.

The online world really is converging with my real world – something I’m very happy about – because I’m meeting all kinds of people that I wouldn’t otherwise.

Dug and Spin, Mary-Doug and Freckle - at class