The AKC Rally® Virtual Program has been made a permanent sport feature with AKC.
AKC Rally® Virtual Program
The AKC Companion Events Department is excited to announce the AKC Rally Virtual Program has been approved as a permanent sport feature with AKC.
The Rally Novice, Rally Intermediate, Rally Advanced and Rally Excellent classes will be available to participate in virtually permanently. The competitor will set up a pre-designed AKC Rally course, video record the team’s performance, and submit it to AKC. In turn, AKC will assign a pre-selected AKC Rally Judge to virtually review and score the team’s Rally performance.
Courses and information are published on the menu on the Rally Virtual homepage.
The AKC Rally Virtual program is open to all dogs six months of age and older. Dogs entered in the Rally Advanced class must have earned the Rally Novice (RN) title and may have earned the Rally Intermediate (RI) title according to the owner’s records. Qualifying in the Rally Advanced class three times will result in the dog earning the Rally Advanced (RA) title.
Dogs entered in the Rally Excellent class must have earned the Rally Advanced (RA) title according to the owner’s records. Qualifying in the Rally Excellent class three times will result in the dog earning the Rally Excellent (RE) title. All qualifying scores will be recorded on the dog’s AKC record and applied toward the three required for the Rally Advanced and Rally Excellent titles.
The qualifying scores and titles earned virtually are the same as those earned at in-person events. You may earn a title by qualifying at either or both types of events. The RAE class is not offered in this virtual program and therefore, virtual classes cannot be used to earn the RAE title where double Qs at the same event are required. Rally Championship (RACH) points will be recorded for dogs after they have earned the Rally Excellent (RE) title, for scores of 91 or better in the Rally Advanced and Rally Excellent classes in the virtual program.
The scores earned virtually will not be eligible to use to qualify for entry into the AKC Rally National Championship events.
There are five pre-designed courses published on the AKC website for the exhibitor to choose from. The exhibitor will setup the course according to the Instructions provided in the Virtual Rally Guidebook. They will video the performance, upload the video to their personal YouTube account, set the required YouTube viewing options, and submit the video link with the online entry form and pay the fee electronically to AKC.
We are excited to offer this virtual option to our Rally exhibitors permanently!
For more information go to https://www.akc.org/sports/rally/rally-virtual-entry/
For Rally Virtual Guidebook go to https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn-origin-etr.akc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/29154722/AKC-Rally-Virtual-Program-Guidebook-12-2021.pdf
If you have questions after reviewing the information, please write to Rally-VRE@akc.org.
Wishing you lots of fun in your Rally runs!
Sincerely,
AKC Companion Events Team