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COVID-19
The board has been monitoring the progression of the COVID-19 virus and would like to send out the following announcement.
Due to our large demographics we recommend you refer to the local guidelines from the health officials since our country has varying degrees of infection.
Hosts will be responsible to determine whether they should continue with an event. We recommend hosts offer competitors the ability to cancel their entries and provide either a refund or a credit toward a future event, however the handling of this situation will be left to the host club.
Should a host decide to cancel an event due to COVID-19, CARO will offer a credit for your application fees to go against a future trial. No refunds will be offered at this time.
We encourage host clubs to hire a judge locally where possible to avoid travel. Judges are permitted to cancel their judging assignment due to concern over COVID-19 when cancelation is directly related to bans on travel made by their employers. No one can afford a 14 day quarantine. If you cannot find a local judge then the host will have to consider canceling or postponing the event.
As we move closer to the AGM we will make an announcement on how we intend to proceed. The Board of Directors will make an announcement at a later date.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19 please consider the following:
Wash your hands often throughout the day. Do not touch your face with your hands.
Do not ask anyone to hold your dog, leash or collar.
Do not ask people to use your phone to record your run, transfer at a distance using airdrop or some other means.
If you feel unwell, don’t attend!
If you have travelled within 14 days please consider not attending.
Have lots of paper towels, soap and hand sanitizer available in the washrooms and around the event.
Apply social distancing protocols to decrease the likelihood of contracting or spreading COVID-19. Social distancing measures include avoiding large gatherings and minimizing close personal contact with individuals.
World Health Organization Update
As you may have heard, (WHO) has declared COVID-19 virus an international pandemic. Note this announcement applies to the international community as a whole, and different regions around the world may face different levels of threat.
For ongoing updates and news related to COVID-19, please access the websites below:
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Infection Prevention and Control Canada |
2020 AGM Information Updated
Information about the 2020 AGM is being updated on the AGM page. You may also click here to be taken directly to the information.
Welcome to our Document Management Volunteer
The board would like to welcome Sherrie Gourlie, who will be taking on the document management volunteer role. Sherrie brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the position. Thank you for volunteering and welcome to the team!
BC/AB/NWT Regional Director
The election is complete and the new Regional Director for the BC/AB/NWT area is:
Change to effective date of Working Level exercise
The change to Expert Designed Retrieve ONLY in Working will be moved to be effective January 1, 2020.
Board Positions & Election
The board of directors would like to thank the following members for allowing their nominations to stand. No other nominations were received for the positions, so these are your new board members, starting June 1, 2019.
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Debby DaCosta – President DaCosta looks forward to the opportunity to fill the role of president. A competitor since 2005 currently competing with 4 dogs in regular, team and working class at all levels soon to include brace, a judge since 2010, helped create the Brace Class, assisted with the Working Class, currently Rules Committee Chair, helps mentor judges and presented at multiple AGM’s. She believes members should have a voice, and wants to help CARO continue to grow across Canada. If you know Debby you know she truly loves the organization and what it stands for, she is helpful to all who compete at her facility and people she judges at other facilities. She continues to help people on Fb and other networks to help them understand and grow with the sport, a true ambassador for CARO. Emma Bell - Director at Large Emma is excited to join the CARO executive as Director at Large. Emma is a lawyer in the Vancouver area. She is a CARO judge, and enjoys competing in rally obedience, agility, barn hunt, and lure coursing with her three Boxers; Malcolm, Lila, and Sully. Jennifer Oldfield - Regional Director (SK/MB) Relatively speaking, I am someone who is fairly new to the sport of CARO. I have been a judge almost as long as I have been a member. I love the sport for the bond it creates within the person-dog team and love seeing it grow and develop over the course of time, in the competitors. I enjoy training my own dogs, plus I very much enjoy teaching and guiding others to improve and love the sport as much as I do. I hope to provide a voice for my region over the course of my time as Regional Director and to help to continue to grow this great organization. Lilian Cook - Regional Director (ON) Now that I am recently retired from Queen's University, as an Administration Manager in Nursing, I look forward to this new position in CARO and encourage all to contact me with ideas, questions, suggestions or concerns. In the interest of CARO, it is best to have open dialogue for the best communication among all involved in this sport. I started competing in CARO in 2010 to work in a fun way with my rescue golden, who needed and gained tons of confidence and excelled in this fun sport. I am now a CARO judge, enjoying helping others to be successful in this fun sport of Rally and continue competing with my other dogs as well. I look forward to representing others in the Ontario Region to have a voice in the continued growth of CARO. |
There will be an election for the position of Regional Director (AB/BC/Territories). More information will be provided to voting members in the related region, and results will be announced after the election.
On behalf of the board, I thank you very much for your enthusiasm, and I look forward to working with you over the next two years in the role of past president!
- Sarah-Jane Petti
New Working Level Handbook now available
The board of directors is pleased to bring you an updated Working Level Handbook. This is the first major update that has been introduced to the Working Levels. The board would like to thank Debby DaCosta and Marilyn Fraser for their time reviewing and proofreading.
The document may be found on the Publicatin page: https://canadianrallyo.ca/page/Publication
Survey Responses
The Board of Directors would like to thank everyone that participated in the first CARO survey!
New Course Design Template
A new template for course design has been uploaded to the site. Find it here. The following are the changes that have been made:
As an added note: newer versions of PowerPoint / Windows have restored the more intuitive rotate and move for the symbols.
Clarification - Moving Down Walk Around
Additional cues for the down in the Moving Down exercise are scored the same as for all additional cues.
Effective Immediately - New Judge's Class
Trial hosts may allow the judge to enter a class they are judging. The course must be judged by a second qualified CARO judge. Scores earned in the judge's class will not be for placement ribbons or special awards, but count towards titles being earned. Qualifying scores will receive qualifying ribbons. The class may be run before or at the last reset of the class. The trial host may decide whether judge's classes runs that result in a new title will receive new title ribbons, if they are available. The trial host will decide the amount to charge the judge to enter this class.
Halt Side Step Right Halt Clarification
Clarification to match the information in Appendix J
Page 31 – Exercise #22 – Halt-Side Step Right – Halt
1 to A 2 point deduction shall incur for dogs that do not remain in heel position (parallel to the handler) on the side step.
Ownership Restrictions
Effective Immediately: All restrictions regarding ownership of the dog and who may handle the dog in competition have been removed.
Rule Clarification - Barrel Racing in Working Handbook
The following is for immediate implementation in the Working Level handbook:
Barrel Racing (all levels):
Clarification: For consistency, the dog must sit when returning to the handler after all cones have been circled. Now all exercises where the dog returns to the handler requires a sit for completion.
Rule Clarification - Physical Praise in Working Level
The following is for immediate implementation:
Addition: Upon completion of an exercise, whether successful or not, the owner may choose to briefly pet or touch the dog as a reward. If the owner touches the dog mid exercise (for example, after the dog completes one cone in Round the Clock), the judge shall tell the competitor to “move on” to the next attempt at the exercise or to the next exercise after the second attempt, or in Expert.
Physical praise is allowed as the teams move between exercises, for example, in the form of hand targeting.
Touching the dog to put it into a position (Sit, Down, Stand), or guiding the dog between exercises by the collar is considered to be a physical correction and will result in an NQ. This will result in the loss of all Passes already accumulated in the round.
AGM/Sponsored Trials
- In odd number years, the AGM be held only by teleconference (and video conference when possible). CARO will sponsor 2 trials during the year.
For a CARO sponsored trial:
- a judge's clinic will be held, free to members, judges and potential- shadow judging will be available, done by the clinician outside of the ring as per the MGH
- clubs may submit requests to the board of directors to host a CARO trial and may request a clinician, but the final word on the clinician / judge working with shadow judges will be up to the discretion of the board
- CARO will attempt to distribute the sponsored trials across the various regions of the country
- CARO will reimburse the host club $4 / run as per standing resolution
- CARO will reimburse travel and hotel costs for the clinician / judge working with shadow judges, including meals (to a maximum of $75 per day)
- CARO will receive any funds from non-members attending the judge's clinic
- CARO will provide a $25/level stipend to the clinician/judge working with the shadow judges, as per the standing motions
Election Results
Thanks very much to Tanya for acting as our election committee and doing a great job of monitoring the election.
New Master General Handbook available!
Thanks to the hard work of the board of directors and other volunteers, a new Master General Handbook is available for all competitors. Previously announced changes will continue to be in effect, with other changes, particularly in the Versatility levels come into effect April 1, 2018.
The new publication is located: https://canadianrallyo.ca/page/Publication
Rule update - effective immediately
Working level will no longer have any pre-requisites.
Membership information on CARO website
Change to Judging Requirements
Effective immediately the judging requirement for judging Novice, Advanced, and Excellent Team has changed to:
A minimum of 10 teams in a minimum of 2 rounds of any combination of Novice, Advanced and Excellent.
Wording clarifications for Sign 43
Please note the additional clarification within the rule changes to Sign 43:
The team comes to a halt and the dog sits in heel position at the Station sign.
The 5’ line should be indicated by markers on either side of the path of travel so that it does not interfere with the handler or It may be tape or other markers.
There is currently an upload issue so the publication for Sign 43 in the publications has not been updated to include the 2 items listed.
Form for Tracking Rally-O Titles
Thank you to Barb Burgess, who created a pdf form to use to track your Q's and titles through all the various levels of CARO Rally-O. The form can be found here. Alternatively just click the "Dogs" link at the top of the page to also get to the new form.
Gold & Master Supreme Titles
As per the July motion that was passed by the board: Versatility Excellent C stream qualifying scores now count towards Gold and Master Supreme titles.
If you believe you should have a title based on this new clarification, please contact dataentry@canadianrallyo.ca
Change to Team Titles
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY:
It will no longer be required for a handler/dog pair to achieve their individual title before entering the team ring at any level. The rule still stands that the team rounds may not be entered concurrently.
For example: a handler/dog pair achieve their Novice Team title, they can now go directly into Advanced Team without first achieving their individual Advanced title.
A handler/dog pair may not enter both Novice Team and Advanced Team at the same trial in hopes that they will acheive their Novice Team title. The CNT must be achieved prior to entering Advanced, and so forth.
Change to Sign 43
Halt Call Front While Running:
There are changes to the criteria of Sign 43 that will be EFFECTIVE August 1, 2017. Please see the document in Publications for details.
FEO Runs
FEO runs are offered at the discretion of the hosting club. CARO does not collect fees for these runs, and the judge is not required to score the runs. The club may charge whatever fee they wish. Clubs may determine the rules for their FEO runs, with the exceptions that: dogs must have a Novice title in order to run off leash in the ring and all dogs must enter and exit the ring on leash and under control.
New Versatility Sign
A new start sign is available for use in Versatilty classes. The orange start sign will help competitors remember they are starting the course with their dog on the right-hand side. The sign may be downloaded on the Signs page. Thanks to Anthea Young MIller for the suggestion!
Stand for Exam
Please see this document for the changes to the Stand for Exam. The rule is effective July 1, 2017
Minor Change to Score Sheets
Please note there has been a minor change to the Score Sheets - the change is to correct the bottom portion where deductions are listed for scoring recues in the various levels. The new forms are up on the Trial Forms page.
Summary of Rule Changes
There is now a PDF file on the Rules - Publications page. This file is a summary of the rule changes from 2015. A new Master Handbook will not be printed for 2016.
Trial Applications
There are only two ways to apply for a trial date:
Complete the form manually and mail to the Trial Approver with the appropriate payment.
Complete the online application form and submit payment through PayPal.
Any applications received in any other manner will be returned (for example - submitting an application manually and paying separately through PayPal).
Dog Bites
There has been one reported incident of a dog biting a judge. Effective immediately the following rules comes into effect.
The safety of our judges is paramount and to that end, effective immediately, judges have the right to refuse to examine a dog if the judge feels uncomfortable doing the examination.
A new form has been uploaded to the web site which MUST be completed and sent with the trial results to the CARO office whether or not any incident has occured at a trial. Trial secretaries will be advised of the form.
Shadow Judging
Effective immediately the rules for Shadow Judging for the Versatility levels are changed to:
Must shadow judge under an approved CARO judge for four (4) courses from the Versatility and/or Versatility Excellent and/or Versatility Team to a total of 10 dogs.
Change to the Requirements for the Rally Event Ring
Omitted from the Brace document
Replacement Judges
Changes - Judging of the Brace Class
Page 1
Allotted time for Novice is 5 minutes all other levels have 4 minutes.
Page 2
Twelve inches (12”) extra spacing will be added between cones for the weave once, figure 8 and spiral exercises. Additional space may be added at the judge's discretion. (Brace Class)