Ally RAE CGC owned by Viki Smartt of Knoxville, TN
In 2010, a friend of Viki’s spotted an addict trying to sell a young puppy on a street corner and immediately knew he had to help. The friend offered the man $4 as that was all he had in his wallet at the time.
It was good news for Ally, a 5-week-old terrier-Beagle mix, that the man took the money and the friend rescued Ally, even though he had three dogs and could not keep a fourth.
He took the puppy with him to the dog park to show to some of his dog-loving friends and it was good luck again for Ally that Viki and her husband were at the park that day.
“We had been talking about getting a second dog to keep our 1 year old shelter dog, Izzy, company. Izzy and Ally played well together and instantly bonded. Ally had found her forever home,” Viki said.
When she was old enough, Viki enrolled Ally in puppy class and discovered she is very smart.
“Over the next few months and years, we continued on to the next levels of obedience training, and my trainer convinced me to try AKC Rally with her. We entered our first trial in October 2014. Ally earned her Rally Novice Title that weekend with a 2nd place and a score of 99 and two 1st places with scores of 100 and 99 and qualified for the 2015 AKC Rally National Championship (RNC) in Novice,” Viki said. “After competing in two more local trials, we competed at the RNC. She placed 34th out of 73 entrants. This was only her fourth competition. Since the 2015 RNC, she has gone on to earn her Rally Advanced, Rally Excellent and Rally Advanced/ Excellent Titles and we are heading to the RNC again this year to compete for the National Title.”
Ally has also trained in agility and loves that sport. She has a large repertoire of tricks she performs including saying her prayers and whispering on command. And she loves to wave! After the 2017 RNC, Viki and Ally plan to start competing in obedience.