The premium is available now and entries open on Monday, January 4. This event is limited to 30 entries per trial, so don’t delay !

AKC Virtual Novice Rally Trial

DATE:            Sunday, Dec 20, 2020

TIME:             8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.  (teams will be scheduled on the hour and half hour; 20 minutes will be allotted for the walk-thru and run; the additional 10 minutes will allow for sanitizing the building)

COST:             $10.00 per run (only one run per dog)

WHAT: One of the five approved AKC Novice Virtual Rally courses will be available to those who wish to earn a Rally Novice leg while trials are still few and far between.  A Club member will be available to videotape your run on your own phone/video camera to submit to AKC.  If you feel more comfortable, you may bring a tripod to hold the device instead.  Exhibitors are responsible for submitting their entry form and fee to AKC, along with a link to their video (after uploading to YouTube).

Registration Opens:          Tuesday, December 8
Registration Closes:          Thursday, December 17

This weekend, Dec 4-6 2020, the Oriole Dog Training Club is having an AKC agility trial. Normally we hold this trial elsewhere where we can have hundreds of dogs and exhibitors in 2 rings . But this year, we needed to carefully guard the club’s stressed finances and scale the trial down to 1 ring to reduce the number of exhibitors present. So we moved this trial (and our January trial as well) to our club building.

The trial committee – chaired by Oriole member Tricia Dunseith and our Trial Secretary, Clantyre Show Secretary Services – spent quite a bit of time on determining safeguards to put in place. In addition to following best practices recommended by the CDC and AKC, the club has been monitoring the quality of the ventilation throughout the building for several months now so that we have a well-informed knowledge of how to ensure the air quality is such that the risk of contamination via viral aerosol is reduced to a very low level.

Sorry – but this is one trial where you can’t spectate. The key to keeping everyone safe is to ensure that few people are in the building at any given point. For this trial we have the Oriole Rule of Five: You can be in the building for exactly 5 reasons:

1. Walk your course
2. Run your dog
3. Volunteer
4. Use the restroom
5. Pick up your ribbon

Masking of course is required at all times while on site including while running your dog. Here are some of the other policies put in place:

Check-in and worker coordination: Stations for these are set up outside of the building.

Traffic Flow: There is a specific one-way traffic flow in and out of the building. The main hallway is used for entry and the middle hallway is used to exit. Quality ventilation in this area is ensured by keeping the front doors open as well as use of an air purifier with a UV filter.

Cookie-Toy Table: A table is provided between the ring entrance and exit for exhibitors to store their coat/cookie/toys before the run.

Technological tools: Exhibitors with smartphones and car radios can track the progress of the class. (We are trying – with indifferent success – to stream the trial on Facebook as well, but are running into issues with bandwidth on the club WiFi network).

Results: These are posted in the building near the station where an exhibitor may enter to pick up their ribbon or they may be viewed in real-time outside on a monitor placed next to a window.

We are glad we are able to have a limited trial under all of these precautions and are appreciative that our exhibitors are being supportive to help keep everyone safe.

We know that both you and we all look forward to the day when things can go back to normal. Until then – Stay Safe & Stay Healthy!

Maybe you’ve heard about Barn Hunt and would like to learn more and even try it out?  Oriole (and the Oriole Rats!) are supporting an Intro workshop given by BHA judge and Oriole club member Colin Ratcliffe to be held at Branchwater Farm on Saturday, Dec 12.  Check it out here!  After this workshop, you and your dog will be well prepared for the Rat Instinct Test at the new December trial the following weekend (discounts offered for those that take the Workshop!)

And speaking of that December trial, entries are open until Wednesday, December 9. Note that we do expect to be using the outside rings (under cover) so that maximum safety can be observed during the pandemic.

See our Barn Hunt Trial Information page for links and more information on our Dec 19-20 Barn Hunt trial at Branchwater or visit barnhunt.com.

Don’t forget to come dressed for the occasion. We will be judging 😉

Late and Day of Entries are still available for this trial as well:

Nov 7-8 at SuperPup: This is our normal November fall trial.

The premium is available now and entries open on Monday, October 5. This event is limited to 30 entries per trial, so don’t delay !

Dec 4-6, 2020
at the Oriole Dog Training Club in Halethorpe, MD

This trial has been moved for this year for COVID-19 reasons to our training building.

Entries Open: Friday, Oct 2, 2020 (Method is First Received)
Entries Close: Friday, Nov 20, 2020

Friday’s trial is a “games only” evening event!
Friday evening: All levels – FAST + Time2Beat (limit 100 runs)

Saturday: All levels – STD, JWW & FAST + Time2Beat + Premier STD
Sunday: All levels – STD, JWW & FAST + Time2Beat + Premier JWW


Entries are limited to 100 runs on Friday evening
Entries are limited to 350 runs per day on Saturday & Sunday

Note that this trial has been moved offsite to outdoor rings at Branchwater Farm in Reisterstown, Maryland (near Hunt Valley, Maryland)

It being COVID times and the U.S. Mail not as functional as usual, we will be accepting entries through the weekend. Entries can be submitted via email and we do take electronic payments (PayPal and Venmo).

Links for the entry form, the test schedule, and instructions for electronic payment are below.

Information for all three Oriole Barn Hunt fall trials are now posted:

Sep 23 at Branchwater: Entries for this trial close in one more week.

Oct 10-11 at Branchwater: This is a new trial for which entries open TODAY.

Nov 7-8 at SuperPup: This is our normal November fall trial and entries for it open on Monday.

See our Barn Hunt Trial Information page for links and more information or visit barnhunt.com

This fall’s Artful Dodgers Oct 3-4 USDAA trial is happening.  It has been moved outside to a different location for safety.  Event details and the entry form are available on-line at

https://www.usdaa.com/events/event-calendar-details.cfm?e=109453

The time period for entering this trial is short and the U.S. Mail is not extremely reliable at the moment so email entries will be accepted.   (Hand delivered entries will also be taken at the Mid-Atlantic MADness trial).  Instructions for entering via email as well as other details about this trial are located here:

https://orioledogclub.org/usdaa-agility-trial-information-page/