Obedience 101

What?

Obedience is a learned set of skills or behaviors, which enables a dog to live more compatibly with their owner(s). Obedience emphasizes and demonstrates the usefulness of the dog as a companion to mankind.

The core of a good relationship with a family pet, therapy dog and performance dog is obedience. Obedience is NOT age, gender, color, owner or breed specific.

Basic obedience would greatly reduce the ever-growing numbers of dogs in shelters and rescue organizations. Obedience training is and can be fun with your Boston. Given the opportunity, Boston’s excel at it.

Who?

The American Kennel Club offers opportunities at Obedience Trials for purebred dogs and their owners to demonstrate these abilities and maintains permanent records of their accomplishments. Any healthy purebred dog with an AKC registration number can compete for Obedience titles. As of 2010, AKC recognizes more than 10 obedience titles earned from seven different classes.

How?

To earn a “leg” toward a title the team (dog & handler) must compete at a licensed trial and earn a score of 170 points or above. There is a maximum score of 200 points possible. And yes, there are unconfirmed reports of Boston Terriers earning the perfect “200” performance.  The title is awarded to those teams who earn 3 legs at three different trials.  The points earned for each qualifying leg are based on the team’s precision of each of the six exercises executed in the class.  Every class has six exercises that the team is scored on. The classes build in difficulty as they progress and they build off of the previous class requirements.

The classes offered & order of progression:

Beginner Novice (BN), Novice (CD), Graduate Novice (GN), Open (CDX), Graduate Open (GO), Utility (UD) and Versatility (VER).

Beginner Novice is effective in 2010; all other classes are currently available.

A team can’t earn a higher title without having earned the previous one. A team must first earn a CD before earning a CDX.

The Obedience Trial Champion (OTCH), Utility Dog Excellent titles and Obedience Master (OM) titles require more tenacity and precision than the other titles.

The Utility Dog Excellent (UDX) is earned by qualifying in both the Open B and Utility B classes at 10 different trials. Multiple UDX’s can be earned. Several Boston Terriers have earned UDX’s.

The Obedience Trial Champion (OTCH) is earned from the Open B & Utility B classes and is based on a point system. Utmost precision is required to earn the 100 points necessary. Points are determined by the number of dogs defeated in each class. Also required is a first placement in the Open B and Utility B class with another first placement from either class.  The Boston Terrier breed does have an OTCH Boston in its history.

The Obedience Master (OM) is also earned from the Open B & Utility B Classes. This title requires 200 points. These points are earned by the individual team’s scores that are 190 and above. Multiple OM’s are attainable

When training your Boston Terrier, remember that they want what we want from life: Fun and immediate gratification with positive reinforcement for their best efforts and successes.

Why?

We acquired our Boston’s because of their clever, quick personalities and their easy, sporty appearance. They deserve our time and respect that obedience training establishes.

Without any obedience, a badly behaved Boston Terrier makes life difficult and frustrating for everyone. That certainly is not why we acquired them.

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