Trials

2024 OBEDIENCE AND TRIALS OCTOBER 19 & 20 , 2024

Obe­di­ence tri­als are designed to test the dog’s suit­abil­ity as a good com­pan­ion. Basic tests include heel­ing (on and off lead), Sit, Stand, Stay and com­ing when called. At more advanced lev­els, dogs are asked to jump, retrieve, respond to sig­nals, and iden­tify and retrieve arti­cles car­ry­ing their han­dlers’ scent. Each level of Obe­di­ence com­pe­ti­tion  ‑Novice, Open and Util­ity – requires mas­ter­ing a spe­cific skill set, which increase in dif­fi­culty, before advanc­ing to the next level. All con­tes­tants in a class are required to per­form the same exer­cises in sub­stan­tially the same way so that the rel­a­tive qual­ity of var­i­ous per­for­mances may be com­pared and scored.

The objec­tive of Rally is to pro­vide a fast-mov­ing and moti­va­tional activ­ity that demon­strates the com­pe­tency of han­dler and dog in per­form­ing basic obe­di­ence exer­cises. In Rally, you and your dog heel through a timed course of sta­tions and per­form the spe­cific obe­di­ence exer­cises indi­cated on each sign. Each sign dis­plays a skill to per­form, such as turns or behav­iors like sit, down, or stay. The dog and han­dler work together and should show a sense of team­work and enthu­si­asm through­out the course. The per­for­mance is timed, but it’s not about being fast. Instead, it’s about accu­racy, con­trol, and team­work. As the class lev­els progress, so does the dif­fi­culty and there­fore the train­ing required. There are four dif­fer­ent lev­els of Rally Obe­di­ence to work through; Novice which is per­formed with your dog on a lead, then Advanced, Excel­lent and Mas­ters, all of which are per­formed off lead.

JUDGES

Marie Sawford (OB, RA)

Marie Saw­ford Marie has been train­ing dogs since 1987. She has com­peted with her BC’s, Golden Retriever and Nor­we­gian Buhund earn­ing GMOTCH, OTCh’s and over 500 HITs along the way. Her first dog OTCH McCann Megan AG.X Am UD was the #1 Obe­di­ence dog in Canada in 1998 and her Golden GMOTCH Windrows Do U Believe in Magic AG. I WC RE Am CDX WC was the #1 Obe­di­ence dog in Canada in 2005. Cur­rently BC’s “Jett”, “Trew” and young “Rhys” are doing Obe­di­ence, Rally, Scent and Herd­ing at var­i­ous lev­els. Marie began judg­ing Rally Obe­di­ence in 2007 and Obe­di­ence in 2013.

Susie Bell (OB, RA)

I want to Thank the Cale­don Ken­nel Asso­ci­a­tion for ask­ing
ask­ing me to judge Rally Obe­di­ence and Obe­di­ence.
1980 we had our first Labrador Retriever lit­ter under the pre­fix “Pinebank Ken­nel” and in 1984 Pinebank Ken­nel became Per­ma­nent Reg­is­tered with the CKC. Since then we strive to pro­duce Labradors that can do it all! We had a cou­ple of Irish Water spaniels and I trained a Cav­a­lier King Charles Spaniel in Obe­di­ence. I love to work with my dogs and they teach us a lot about our­selves and life.
Train­ing my pups has lead to teach­ing and now judg­ing. I have enjoyed judg­ing all lev­els of CKC Obe­di­ence, Rally Obe­di­ence, Work­ing Cer­tifi­cate Tests, Hunt Tests and Canine Good Neigh­bour Tests and I have judged the Puppy Stake at the LOC Field Trial and Junior Han­dling for both Obe­di­ence and Con­for­ma­tion as well as Sweep
Stakes for the Irish Water Spaniel Asso­ci­a­tion of Canada and Atlantic Labrador Retriever Club. I have been the Canine Good Neigh­bour Rep for Zone 6 and have been the Obe­di­ence Rep for the CKC. A few years ago I was a Direc­tor for Uni­ver­sity of Guelph Pet Trust and held posi­tions on the Board of LOC and Hamil­ton Dog Obe­di­ence Club and Labrador Retriever Club of Canada.
My dogs and I have worked together to achieve Con­for­ma­tion Cham­pi­onships, Grand Mas­ter Obe­di­ence Trial Cham­pion, Rally Mas­ter Obe­di­ence, Grand Mas­ter Hunter, Work­ing Cer­tifi­cate Excel­lent Titles, TDX Track­ing Titles and Canine Good Neigh­bour Titles. Five dif­fer­ent dogs I have trained have been in the top 10 Obe­di­ence Dogs in Canada; 11 dif­fer­ent dogs I have trained in Rally Obe­di­ence since it started and 12 Util­ity titles on dif­fer­ent dogs, with 7 of those dogs received their
MOTCH.
Now that I am retired, my time is spent hav­ing fun with my dogs
and help­ing oth­ers with their dogs, train­ing my dogs and I love it.
To do per­for­mance sports a dog has to be put together prop­erly with good
Con­for­ma­tion and kept in good con­di­tion and loved!
Susan Bell

LOCATION: Agility World, Acton Ontario L7J 2X3