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Training sessions are held on Thursday Evenings |
The objective of obedience training is essentially teaching a dog to react to certain commands in order to have a rapport between the owner and the dog so that it becomes socialised and can share in its owner’s everyday life whether it be in the home, the car, or a walk in the park.
While it is possible for someone to train their dog at home it is far better to join a club where the dog can be trained in a climate of mutualcooperation.
The Club offers obedience training, and can cater for puppies and dogs whose owners may want training from basic commands right up to Crufts-level competitive obedience.
Initially, new members train on a beginners' course that lasts for seven weeks. At the end of this course they take an assessment test and will be moved into the next class best suited to their achievements.
The club runs Progress Exercises every eighth week to give handlers the opportunity to move into a higher class as their dog improves.
Most of our members are happy working in the domestic classes (for pet dogs) as they are aiming to have a well-trained pet that will respond to their commands.
Members, who aspire to compete at obedience shows, having attained a high standard of work, can train in the class that is reserved to those who compete regularly.
All of our trainers are experienced people who have successful trained and competed with dogs over a number of years and are willing to pass this knowledge onto others.
Obedience originated from the Working Trials, which were run by German Shepherd Dog clubs in the 1920s with the first ever Obedience classes being held at the old Crystal Palace in London in January 1924.
In October 1928 the Kennel Club drafted rules & regulations for Obedience classes.
The Alsatian League held the first UK Obedience only show in in October 1949 at Finchley, North London.
There are a number of types of shows where an owner can compete with their dogs. The first is at local Companion Dog Shows; the second is at a KC approved shows. These are; Limit, Open or Championship Shows which are run under KC Rules.
Beginners often chose to compete in local Companion Dog Shows, which are not dissimilar to KC Beginners classes, and then progress to KC approved Shows as they gain experience and confidence.
Under KC Rules there are seven Classes each with a rising degree of difficulty to suit the handler and dogs ability, experience and success - these are Pre-Beginner, Beginner, Novice, ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, and Championship.
Whatever competition an owner chooses both they and their dog will be more successful for being trained.
Basically, whether from pre-beginner to the championship level, the exercises required are similar but as progression is made through the level these become more challenging with additional elements being added at the higher levels.
The exercises competitors will be expected to complete are heelwork (on and off the lead), recall, retrieve, sit and down stays. In the higher levelsthere will be scent exercises, discrimination exercise and sendaways.
The judge will ask all competitors, through instructions from a steward, to carry out a pattern of heelwork manoeuvres with their dog, which in pre beginner are very simple through to the more complex ones required as a dog and owner progress through the levels.
Each judge will design a pattern of heelwork (it looks rather like a rail map) that each dog and handler in the class will complete. The complexity and content is dependent upon the class being judged.
It is quite simple and straightforward for the Beginner and Novice classes, straight lines with right, left and right about turns. Class B introduces changes of pace, slow and fast. Class C heelwork can involve circles, weaves and multiple turning manoeuvres.
In Beginner and Novice this is a recall to sit in front of the handler. The dog must wait while the handler walks away, turns and calls the dog to sit neatly in front and then go to heel. In Class A it is a recall to heel. The handler walks away and then calls the dog while continuing to walk forwards. The dog must catch up and walk to heel with the handler as in heelwork until told to stop.
In all classes the dog sits at the handler’s side while an article is thrown. It is then sent to retrieve it, return smartly to sit in front, give up the article and then go to heel. Beginner dogs can retrieve whatever their handler provides, for Novice and Class A it is a dumbbell, in Classes B and C the judge will provide a similar article for each dog. The stipulations are that no item can be food; it must be clearly visible and capable of being picked up by each dog.
All classes have a sit stay and down stay and all the dogs in the class do these two exercises together as a group. The dog is expected to remain in the designated position while the handler walks away for a designated time. This will be out of sight in the higher classes. The dog may only move when allowed to do so, on return of the handler to the dog's side. The sit stay ranges from 1 minute, handler in sight in Beginner and Novice to 2 minutes handler out of sight in class C. The down stay lasts 2 minutes, handler in sight, in Beginner and Novice building up to 10 minutes, handler out of sight in class C.
The dog is sent to a designated place within the ring, it must drop to the down smartly on command from the handler. Then wait until called to heel as class A above. The sendaway area is usually set out by markers. The judge will stipulate where the dog must land within it. During its career a dog will be expected to cope with various sendaway areas and so be expected to run to a single marker and land in front on one occasion or drop in the centre of a triangle the next or square of markers or run through the markers by a set distance. This makes this test quite difficult to teach well and requires the dog to understand but not anticipate the various needs of the test.
This is only in class C. The dog is left in a sit, stand or down position while the handler walks away, a distance between 10 and 20 paces. The dog is then given a combination of 6 positions of sit, stand and down. The dog must not move more than its body length in any direction during the test.
Dogs naturally have a far superior sense of smell to us. The scent discrimination test is first introduced in Class A where the dog must find a cloth with the handlers scent on it from a line of 5 other blank (non-scented) cloths. In class B there can be up to 10 cloths set out in any pattern, but this time one has a decoy scent on it. In class C the dog must locate the cloth with the judge’s scent on it amongst up to 10 others. There can be multiple decoy cloths here.
