Obedience Exercise Requirements

Obedience Exercise Requirements

Border Collie

Obedience exercise is just one of many dog competitions that AKC

sponsors throughout the United States and the world over.

At these competitions, dogs are graded purely on their performance of a set number of exercises within each individual class.

The dog's conformation has no bearing on this event, as even spayed and neutered dogs may participate in these particular AKC Obedience trials.

Below find a complete listing of obedience requirements for each individual class.

Novice Obedience Exercise Requirements(CD)

1) Heel on leash and figure 8 - includes sitting at halt, speed changes and about turns.
2) Heel off leash and figure 8 - same as #1, but done off leash.
3) Recall - come when called from sit/stay position 35� away.
4) Stand for examination - performed off leash with handler 6� away.
5) Long sit - performed off leash with a group of dogs for at least 1 minute.
6) Long down - performed off leash with a group of dogs for at least 3 minutes.

Open (CDX) Obedience Exercise Requirements

1) Drop on recall - dog lies down on command while in motion.
2) Heel free and figure 8 - same as in Novice level.
3) Broad jump - the length of the jump is double that of the high jump for the dog.
4) Retrieve on flat - dog retrieves a dumbell.
5) Retrieve over high jump - jump length is 1 1/4 times the dog�s height at the shoulder.
6) Long sit - must be completed for a 3 minute period of time with handler out of sight.
7) Long down - must be completed for a 5 minute period of time with handler out of sight.

Utility (UD) Obedience Exercise Requirements

1) Directed Jumping - dog moves away from handler, sits, and jumps as directed.
2) Directed retrieve - dog retrieves on of 3 different gloves as directed.
3) Signal exercise - commands such as heel, stay, stand, sit, down and come are done with hand signals only.
4) and 5) Scent discriminations - dog must find article with handlers scent on it among many other like articles.
6) Moving stand and exam - dog stands in place while handler keeps moving.

Many, if not all, dog shows now include obedience trials. The main goal of obedience training in the first place is to create a working team - a partnership between both human and canine working directly in sync.

Find out more about the sport of dog obedience yourself and I'm sure you'll be amazed at the skill and performance of the participants. Who knows, maybe you'll want to get involved in canine obedience yourself.

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" If you eliminate smoking and gambling, you will be amazed to find that almost all an Englishman's pleasures can be, and mostly are, shared by his dog." - George Bernard Shaw

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