Anybody else do competitive obedience?

Just wondering as there's plenty on agility.

I go to training with George. He's the only GSD in a class with 10 or so border collies.

Nicky

I've competed in Obedience in the past & started in 1964 with a dog I trained for a friend. I had trained my own dog before this but my mother took her over for the ring after telling me I was too young to compete(I was 9 at the time)my mother never won anything with my dog, but she always told people she had trained her from day 1

I waited a long time to get another dog to train & compete with on my own & she won out of Beginners & Novice at one show(no Pre Bs back in 1972)aged 7 1/2 months & she took me to a 3rd in Ticket

I've always done obedience training with all my dogs & competed with most of them up to the mid 1990s

I now run an Obedience show, & Judge/Steward at shows, I don't compete anymore as my knees aren't upto all the training that is required to be successful

Glad to hear you are still involved with obedience. Grrr to having bad knees.
Wow, Beginners and Novice at 7 months. Well done.

I haven't competed with George yet. I bought "Clicker Training for Obedience" by Morgan Spector. He reckons not to compete until a dog is rock solid in all exercises. Made sense to me. George got his KCGC Gold last year and is pretty well proofed on his stays, which I believe is where most dogs fail.
I have at last found an excellent obedience clicker trainer so will enter him in a few shows this year. We also attend another clicker class but it's only for domestic obedience and tricks, which is fun and just as important IMO.
Wish us luck this year.
Nicky

If your dog has good"set"exercises ie recall, retrieve & stays, then you have a good basis for competitive Obedience. Many of the higher classes can be lost on poor set exercises despite the heelwork being brilliant !

Way too many people take it far too seriously, after all we all take home the best dog every time

Good luck for the season & keep us updated with your progress. I doubt our paths will cross as yo are at the opposite end of the country to me.

The ObedienceUK site is full of information & tips, as is the [a social network] group

GSDs are always one of my top breeds, have owned a good few in the past

Thanks, I have joined Obedience UK. I find the threads really tedious to follow, unless I'm being thick. Curious as to the other site. Are you not allowed to mention it?

I've started looking at competitive obedience just as another activity to do with my dog. I have not yet found a club to attend regularly, so I joined Obedience UK and entered Lola into a show last October just to learn the ropes. After mentioning this on their social networking site (you know the one) a lovely lady offered to take me under her wing for the day and answer all my questions.

Lola and I gained some notoriety after a spectacular fail in the stay ring and by the time we left, even the person manning the gate knew who we were.

I'm not planning on entering any more shows until at least late Spring, but maybe we'll see you at one of them as we are London based.

Yup, stays are the tricky ones!

It's a good idea to just go along to a couple of shows with Lola and just watch. That will get her used to the atmosphere and maybe you could do a training round. I went to one near Walton-on Thames just because I wanted to do a training round but they'd had so many entries they had to use the two rings they had put by. Grrrr

I hope you find a class. I don't think I would train as well without the motivation of weekly classes. I'd mean well but it probably wouldn't happen.

I'm considering competitive obedience with My Lab Barney so I'd be interested in how you get on.
I don't care to much about winning but think it would be an interesting hobby and I love training

You can always ask to do training stays as well.
Some judges/stewards allow you to do it, so its worth asking.

I'm hoping to have a go with my Dobe puppy when he is old enough,he is 5 months now. Is it worth just going in the ring as a training round? I have taken him to a couple of shows and different training venues just to socialise and have fun. I also dabble in IPO but so little of it and so far to travel. I just liked the atmosphere a lot at the charity fun dog.show. Good luck everyone.