The lady who trained me to do competitive obedience worked a Great Dane at C.

She was didi as well - the dogs nose was on her shoulder but she was a great trainer.

Several of my friends have done well at Crufts in Obedience

Margaret won with a Cross breed(the second cross to win the dog championship)
Paula won with a BC & her then husband was second with his GSD.
Jan was 3rd with Wukee's G G Grandfather & GGGrand father's son won-both BCs
Rachel was also placed with a WSD
Had several friends their this year & I thought Ava(the 1st Rottweiler ever to win an Ob CC)was stunning.

It is possible to train any breed to some level of obedience, but you have to take the physical structure of the dog into account & your ability to train & develop your dogs skills.

Getting dogs to work close isn't hard, getting them to concentrate & stay close in the key.

I actually had my 10 week old Cavalier puppy doing puppy heelwork at our competition club last night. I'd not done anything with him at home & a friend was amazed at how quickly he picked up on the treat & position from off the leg to onto it. Obviously I only did a few seconds, but he does show promise & Cavaliers are very clever as a certain tri colour on here has proved

Hi,

I intend to get all3 of my dogs inot some sort of advanced obedience training this year - after easter.

Zane definitely has the intelligence and is very graceful, working close whnever I ask him to and for as long as 2 hours at time (depending on how much o fthe training classes I do with him). But I'm not comvinced that in competition he'd do qite as he's trained to as he can be easily distracted at time.

Yiannis, young as he is at 4 months old, last night did the whole training session off lead. OK so he went wandering off occasionally to say hello to other pups but the ideas was to seehow long he's last. But his heel work was amazing ans he stayed close ALL the time. We did this for only about 10 minutes but at least it's a good start. He's like a dried up sponge and is so eager to please and do the right thing. He certainly has the drive for it too.

Ellie is far more inteligent than the 2 boys and although doens't have the same amount of drive as Yiannis, would pick things up ver yquickly. She's as advanced as Zane (in terms of the training classes we already attend) and shes had mybe 1/3 of the formal training that he has. So if I really worked her I could get some very good results.

I think it all depends on firstly the dog and it's drive/enthusiasm to do what you're asking coupled with how good you are as a trainer. Personally I have my secret weapon - liver cake.

Jesterjenn on this board makes it and you could raise the dead with this stuff. My dogs will do ANYTHING for liver cake - including scentwork and heel work. I'll certainly be using it as the training gets harder for my dogs.

Laura xx

Lol Ronnie!!!! Shes Fab

Any breed can do it, for just as many BCs that make it to the top there are the ones that stay at the lower level.

Breeds can compete throughout the levels (ones i have seen)

Aussies, GSDs, BSDs,Shelties, Rough & smooth Collies, Poodles (all types) Huskys & Mals, Goldies, flatties, Nova scotias, Chesapeake, labs, iirish, Red & White setters, Beardies, Border Terriers, Jack Russells,Munsterlanders, Afghan, Borzoi, Dalmations,Rotties, dobes,Beaucerons,Airedales,Papillions, German Spitz, Finnish Laphunds, elkhounds,Cockers, ESS, WSS,Staffies etc etc (im bound to have missed some one out) & Crosses of all types.

This is our Interegional team , a competion which promotes the other breeds:

2009


2008 (mainley ASD & GSD!!!!)



2007




Dogs that our working to the CH level at the moment

GSD, Goldie, Rottie, BSD (terv & Gron) Sheltie, ASD, Poodle (standard)X breeds.

In C , just not Qualified for ticket Yet;
Jack Russell

The thing about the collies is, they Love & thrive on the reptition that is required,
Other breeds need more thought if you like, but there are trainers that almost specialise in training the other breeds, ie Neal Short & Suzanne Jaffa.

I love the challenge of training a rottie, not because they are hard to train, they are not, but as mishflynn says, they are a little bit diff, I like the bigger dogs,

I would say to anyone though, when training a dog, start slow with close healwork, just as you would if you were going to the gym and using muscles you wouldnt normaly use, then build up slowly, x

Yep - the one and only

When I was about 13 - I did a course at a week long agility show with Mary Ray...I was never into obedience but she suggested that I sould try it with my Jazz man. Mum didn;t know anyone down here who did competitive obedience so Mary suggested Ronnie - never looked back!

I think it has more to do with aptitude and temperament from dog and handler than anything else. None of mine could do obedience...but then, neither could I! I have trained dogs to reasonable standards but have never been particularly bothered about exact positioning etc. I`m sure it`s the same with the dogs. The thought of trying to teach my Hound anything more taxing than come, sit or down makes me giggle - it took a year to do Heel!

Well I'm going to sit in on a Joanna Hill workshop next week. I'm told she works quite differently from other people so I'm hoping to get some ideas.

How is training Tala coming along? Is her recall improving? Are you considering having a go at competitive obedience?

BTW - great piccies Mish.