Looking for a fun sport that puts both you and your dog to the test? Rally could be just the ticket.
Part obedience, part obstacle course, rally requires you and your dog to complete a series of exercises as you work your way around a course of numbered stations. Sit. Drop. Turn. Change pace. Come to front. Finish. Walk around your dog. Recall. And just when you think you’ve got everything sorted, along comes an exercise that makes you stop and think: Hang on — which way am I supposed to turn?
That’s half the fun. Rally uses many of the skills found in formal obedience, but the atmosphere is more relaxed. Best of all, you can talk to your dog, praise them and encourage them as you tackle the course together.
CLEAR has to admit to a vested interest here: owner Caroline Strainig adores rally. She has competed since the sport’s early days in Australia and has enjoyed numerous national, state, royal show and breed-national wins with several dogs. In the photo with this article, she is pictured winning Masters rally at a Border Collie Nationals.
But what has kept her hooked is much simpler: rally is enormous fun.
So how does it work?
A rally course is made up of numbered stations, each with a sign showing the exercise dog and handler must perform before moving on. Before competing, handlers walk the course without their dogs to check the sequence, see how it flows and make sure they understand each exercise.
One station might require your dog to sit while you walk around them. Another could involve a particular turn, change of pace, recall or change of position.
At Novice, your dog works on lead and the exercises are relatively straightforward. As you progress through Advanced, Excellent and Masters, the lead comes off, the courses become longer and the exercises more complex.
That’s when rally really starts to test the human half of the partnership too.
A workout for the human brain
At the higher levels, you’re not just testing your dog’s training. You need to read the course, remember where you’re going and perform each exercise correctly.
Some signs look deceptively similar, while courses can double back on themselves with changes of pace and direction, recalls, pivots and exercises at a distance.
Sometimes dog and handler sail through in perfect harmony. Other times the dog is brilliant and the handler arrives at a station, looks at the sign and has a spectacular blonde moment.
Experienced dogs can become remarkably good at the game. Caroline sometimes jokes that Hope has read the signs before she has, because she seems to know what is coming next.
Serious competition, without taking yourself too seriously
There are titles to earn, personal bests to chase and championships to win, but one of rally’s great attractions is its friendly atmosphere.
Competitors cheer each other on, laugh about what went wrong and compare disasters afterwards. Sometimes the unofficial competition seems to be who can accumulate the most incorrectly performed stations in one round.
Another big difference from formal obedience is communication. In rally, you can talk to your dog throughout the course, praise them and encourage them. Caroline has even been known to tell a dog “Love you” as she goes around, to the amusement of the judge.
For dogs that thrive on interaction with their owners, that freedom is a big plus.
You can recover from a mistake
One mistake doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all over.
If you realise you have made a mistake at a station, you can retry the exercise at a cost of three points. If you simply carry on, you will receive an IP — Incorrectly Performed — and lose all 10 points for that station.
So recognising your own mistakes can be rather important.
Rally produces some memorable ones. There is nothing quite like finishing a course feeling enormously pleased with yourself, only to discover that while your dog performed beautifully, you did the wrong exercise.
The dog, of course, usually knew exactly what it was doing.
From Novice to Grand Champion
You don’t need a highly trained dog to begin. If your dog can walk reasonably beside you and has the beginnings of sit, drop, stand and recall, you already have plenty to work with.
Competition progresses through Novice, Advanced, Excellent and Masters. You need three qualifying passes for Novice, three for Advanced, five for Excellent and seven for Masters.
For those who really get the bug, there are championship titles beyond that. Rally Champion requires 10 qualifying scores of 90 or more at Masters level. From January 2026, Rally Grand Champion requires a further 10 Masters scores of 95 or better after gaining the Rally Champion title.
That’s serious rally. But you certainly don’t need ambitions of becoming a champion to get hooked on the sport.
Don’t be intimidated
Don’t be intimidated by competitors who appear to know exactly what they’re doing. Sooner or later, every handler stands in front of a sign with their brain temporarily empty while their dog looks up as if to say: Well? I’m ready. What are you doing?
And that’s rally.
Where to have a go
Caroline offers one-on-one rally training at Wynnum, near her home, as part of CLEAR’s dog sports preparation sessions. Sessions can suit complete beginners or competitors wanting to fine-tune particular skills.
Some clubs also offer rally training. Visit the Dogs Queensland website to find a club near you.
