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 What Do Obedience Titles Mean? |
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To earn official American
Kennel Club obedience
titles,
dogs must unerringly perform
a difficult series of
exercises in
front of judges and disruptive
audiences at an
intimidating
event called a "trial", on three
separate
occasions. | |
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Petra
and Axel are two SJMSC
members in pursuit of AKC
obedience titles. |
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Petra and Axel join a group of other dogs in the long sit
exercise - an all-important
Open exercise leading to the Companion Dog
Excellent Title.
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For the
"Companion Dog" title, the required
Novice exercises
are:
 | Heel
on leash
| Figure 8 on leash
| Stand
for exam by judge
| Heel
off leash
| Recall
| Finish
| Sit-stays and down-stays with owner across the
ring
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For
the
"Companion Dog
Excellent" title, the
required
Open
exercises are:
| Heel
off leash
| Figure 8 off leash
| Drop
on recall
| Retrieve on flat
| Retrieve over jump
| Broad
jump
| Sit-stays and down-stays with owner out of
sight
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For the
Utility Dog
Title the required
exercises are:
| Signals
| Scent
Discrimination
| Directed
Retrieve
| Moving Stand
for Exam
| Directed
Jumping |
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Additional
Titles:
Utility Dog
Excellent
Requires
achieving
qualifying scores in
both Utility and
Open
competition on the
same day at ten
different
trials.
Obedience
Trial
Champion
Requires the
accumulation of 100 points earned by finishing in the ribbons in Open
and
Utility trials. |
 Axel is
careful not to intimidate the judge while demonstrating
the
stand for exam - a key element of the Novice
exercises.
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Axel performs the retrieve over the high jump
(right)
while Petra shows fine form on the broad jump.
These
are two important Open exercises for the Companion
Dog Excellent
title.
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Petra chooses the one article touched by her
handler, in the
scent discrimination exercise. Axel
retrieves a designated
glove.
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Petra easily clears the bar jump in the directed
jumping exercise.
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