Obedience teaches your dog appropriate social behavior with both people and animals, helps correct annoying behaviors, and keeps your dog entertained and happy. Obedience is the foundation for everything you do with your dog. Obedience is arguably the most valuable training you can do with your dog. It will provide life-long skills. If you want to take it a step further, you can consider competition obedience.
To complete in obedience, your dog must:
Be at least 6 months of age
Have an AKC number
Spayed or neutered dogs are eligible to compete, but females can’t be in season
What You Need:
· A collar with nothing hanging from it. Can be metal, leather, or fabric, and buckle, snap, slip, or martingale. Pinch or prong training collars or e-collars are not allowed
· Leash made of fabric or leather. In the novice group exercise sit and down stay and the beginner novice sit for exam it must be 6-foot long, otherwise it only needs to be long enough to provide adequate slack during the heel on leash exercise
Basic Skills Your Dog Should Have to Get Started:
· Heeling (see below for heel position) without verbal commands or signals and staying with you when you move in different directions - left, right, and about turn, fast and slow and through people standing still
· Sit automatically upon stopping without a verbal command or signal
· Sit Stay - allow judge to pat, as you walk around the ring, as you walk to the other end of the ring, with other dogs around for 1 minute, and while you walk around them
· Come when called and sit in front of you
· Finish left or right (for novice) and sit in heel position
· Down and stay with other dogs around for 1 minute and while you walk around them
Heel position is at the handler’s left side with area from the dog’s head to shoulder in line with the handler’s left hip. The dog should be close, but not crowding the handler. The handler’s hands may be in a natural position at the handler’s sides or the handler’s left hand is held against the body centered above the waist with the left forearm carried against the body and the right arm naturally at the side.
Specific commands or signals are only allowed at specific times and no other verbal or physical commands are permitted without penalty during the exercises. Praising and petting is permitted between exercises as long as the dog remains under control.
Beginner Novice (BN) – Optional Beginner Level
All exercises other than recall are done on leash. Exercises include:
Heel on Leash — show whether the dog has learned to watch its handler and adjust its pace to stay with the handler. Rally signs are used for this exercise and are placed to the right of the handler’s path (40 points)
Figure Eight —heeling in a Figure Eight pattern with two people standing still as the posts (40 points)
Sit for Exam — dog sits and stays while handler walks to other end of the leash and judge pats dog on the head and body, dog must not display any resentment (40 points)
Sit Stay — dog sits and stays in the middle of the ring while the handler walks around the perimeter (40 points)
Recall — dog stays at one end of the ring while handler walks to other and then calls the dog to come and sit in front of them (40 points)
Novice (CD) – First Level
This class is for the dog just getting started in obedience that can work on- and off-leash. Exercises include:
Heel on Leash and Figure Eight — same as in Beginner Novice except without rally signs (40 points)
Stand for Examination —off-leash exercise, dog must stay in a standing position as its handler walks about 6 feet away. The judge will then lightly touch the dog on the head, body and hindquarters. Dog must not display any resentment (30 points)
Heel Free — dog heels off-leash doing the same routine as they did on-leash, except without the Figure Eight (40 points)
Recall — same as in Beginner Novice except after sitting in front dog must then finish left or right and sit in heel position (30 points)
Sit Stay Get Your Leash —dog must remain in the sitting position while the handler goes to get the dog’s leash (30 points)
Group Exercise Sit & Down Stay — performed on leash, the dog must remain in the sit and down position, 1 minute each, with other dogs in the ring (30 points)
Scoring is out of a possible score of 200 with a minimum score of a 170 required to qualify. Points are deducted for being out of heel position, tightening of the leash, extra commands or signals, etc. The minimum requirements must be met on each exercise to pass. Three qualifying scores earn the title and the ability to move onto the next level.
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