Competitive Obedience
For dog owners who enjoy competition and relish the opportunity to work as a highly tuned team with their dogs, competitive obedience trials are available. Dogs can earn obedience titles, including an obedience championship.
In competition, merely sitting, lying down, or walking on a leash are insufficient. The dog and handler must perform the activities off leash and in a highly stylized and carefully defined manner. For example, on a recall, the dog must come directly to the handler, without sniffing or veering to one side, and must sit straight in front of the handler, not at an angle or off to one side or the other. Training for obedience competitions builds on basic obedience training.
The United Kennel Club (UKC), the Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC), the American Kennel Club (AKC) and the Australian Shepherd Dog Club of America (ASCA) are some of the organizations which offer titles in Competition Obedience.
AKC obedience titles include: Companion Dog (CD), Companion Dog Excellent (CDX), Utility Dog (UD), Utility Dog Excellent (UDX), and Obedience Trial Champion (OTCH).
In recent years, a new form of Obedience competition, known as Rally Obedience, has become very popular. It was originally devised by Charles L. "Bud" Kramer from the obedience practice of "doodling" - doing a variety of interesting warmup and freestyle exercises. Rally Obedience is designed to be a "bridge", or intermediate step, between the CGC certification and traditional Obedience competition.
Unlike regular obedience, instead of waiting for the judge's orders, the competitors proceed around a course of designated stations with the dog in heel position. The course consists of 10 to 20 signs that instruct the team what to do. Unlike traditional obedience, handlers are allowed to encourage their dogs during the course.
Recently, another dog performance competition has been gaining ground. Known as "Dock Dogs" this method of training has dogs jump off a "dock" and into the water. The dogs who can jump the furthest, on command, win the competition.
Read more about this topic: Obedience Training
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