.com Forum · Obedience Forum

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone can help me... I have been with showdogs for many years but just bred for showing. I have a kennel with no dog in it and I've decided I would maybe like to compete in obedience. But to be truthful I'm not sure where to start.

I have a GSD and an Afghan that has champed in showing and was wondering if I can now compete them in the Obedience.

I have so many questioned and I have looked on the Forum and in the help section but there doesn't seem to be any answers so I was wondering if anyone could answer some questions.

Can any dog and breed be entered in Ob?

Are there certain breeds that are better then others?

Does everything still have to be sessioned to 20?

Does a dog have to be a certain quality. E.g will a rare breed that has a really low SOP win against a top breed that has a high SOP?

At the bottom of the dog page it has a list of activities such as
..HoL
..Figure Eight
..Heel Free
..Recall
..Long Sit
..Long Down

These are all at 5, do I have to do something with these to enable them to compete in OB? or can they be entered now?

What number do I have to change them to and which ones do I have to work on or is it all of them?

Erm thats all the questions I can think of at the moment...

Sorry there is so many but I'm a bit confused lol....

If there is any other advised then it will be gratefully recieved.

Thanks in advanced.

Maxine

Just as conformation needs show obed, condit, coat and muscle being 20, so do the obedience sessioning numbers need to be 20 (or close to, sometimes 19 works). Show obedience also counts as an obedience sessioning trait. If you don't train the dogs, they won't learn the exercises to pass them.

Any dog or breed can enter, and there's no retirement age. Some breeds session up faster than others. I think you could generally go by show obed, if they session up faster in that, they'll generally do better in obed (hint, afghans might take a looong time to session up!).

SOP has nothing to do with obedience. Judges don't care how pretty the dogs look. A source dog could do just as well as a 99.6 SOP.

I suspect (but who knows) that there might be a hidden trait where some dogs are just better at obed than others.

There's 3 levels, novice open and utility. For novice you need the dog to be sessioned up in HoL Figure Eight Heel Free Recall Long Sit Long Down and show obedience.

For open you need the dog to be sessioned up in Drop on Recall Ret on Flat Ret over High Jump Broad Jump

For utility Signal Exer. Scent Discrimination
Directed Retrieve Mov Stand for Exam Directed Jumping

You can session any one of these more than one time a night.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply...

My undrstanding is a lot clearer... Just one more question.

The obedience traits are at 5 at the moment, what is the highest you can session them to?

Can they start competing with a 5 but just not be very good at it?

Thanks again.

maxine.

Like the other sessioning traits, they go up to 20. Don't waste your money on entries till they get to at the very least 18 tho even that might not be good enough for a qualifying score, likely need 19's and 20's of course are best. You can enter all you like at 5's, but you won't qualify so the entry fee goes down the drain.

Thank you again. xxxx