Piper's UK Obedience Debut

August 29, 2000--This weekend was a three-day weekend here in the UK, and Piper just went to his first two obedience trials. As you know, we've been attending weekly training get-togethers at Woburn & District since around May, and we figured it was time to see how he'd stack up against British dogs in real competition.

I'll start with some background. There are six obedience classes in the UK: Pre-beginner, Beginner, Novice, and A, B and C. If you've never handled a dog through Pre-beginner and Beginner before, you have to start there; with subsequent dogs you start in Novice. So we had to enter Pre-beginner, which sounds really easy. But wait...there are things that make it sound even EASIER!

First, the only exercises are heel on/off leash and the recall, plus a 1 minute sit and 2 minute down with the handler only about 6 feet away. Second, (I didn't know this part until I arrived) you can talk to the dog during individual exercises as much as you want, pat your leg constantly while heeling, kneel down when calling the dog, hold your fingers between your knees for the dog to target on during recalls, etc. If you're so inclined, you can play tug games with the leash or give choke collar "corrections" between exercises or when setting the dog up for an exercise. Third, in stays you can physically push your dog into position. Plus, they don't even have to stay the whole interval. If your dog gets up and wanders off 45 seconds into the stay, you still get 75% marks!

Finally, the atmosphere is very relaxed, like a day at the dog park. The handlers sit around the parking lot (a field) and all the hundreds of dogs run around off leash for most of the day. When a handler decides she's ready, she leashes her dog, walks 100 yards to the virtually empty, roped rings (usually in a rugby field) and tells the steward she's ready to compete. I showed up with my folding chair and crate to sit by the ringside all day and I was literally the ONLY person (of 400+) at the show to do so! Everybody came up to comment on it. "Why are you sitting out here near the competition rings instead of in the parking lot with everybody else?" and "What a great idea to bring a CHAIR to sit in!" and (about the crate) "Why is your dog in a cage? Does he bite?"

There are a few things that make UK obedience harder than AKC. First, the heeling patterns are about 3x longer than AKC Novice patterns. That's a long time to keep the dog attentive. Second, the shows are outdoors year-round in all weather. The rings are just metal rods with a rope around them at waist level, so the dog has no idea he's even in a ring or at a show. One of Piper's rings had a forest on the long edge, out of which exercising dogs kept emerging into his ring during competition!

But the thing that makes UK obedience extra hard is that you have to get 1st place before you graduate on to the next class. Starting with Novice, you have to get TWO firsts before moving on. This means that everyone that shows in the UK competes pretty much every weekend year-round for their dog's whole lifetime. Their are two sisters from my club with 11 year old Golden Retrievers that have competed every weekend for 10 years and haven't gotten their 1st in Beginners yet! The few dogs that make it to "C" level are normally around 12 years old when they get to that level. And they still haven't even acquired the FIRST (and only) British obedience title yet, which comes after you win "C" at a Championship show THREE TIMES!

Nearly all the Pre-Beginner dogs are working at or above the AKC 190/200 level at EVERY trial, and there are >30 dogs in each class (sexes are split here--otherwise >60!). The team that gets first place never loses more than 1/2 a point--the equivalent of an AKC 199/200. Because nothing is deducted for multiple commands, nobody ever blows an recall or misses a sit on a halt. The only way dogs lose points is by being crooked, which means that winning competition dogs are super precise at all times. By the way, only one dog out of 350+ lost points on stays either day (by lying down on a sit). You CAN blow stays, but nobody here ever seems to.

Now I'll tell you about the judges. Most of the people from our training club are judges, and one was judging Beginners on Sunday. She was super disappointed that Piper wasn't going to be in her class. Turns out there's no rules here about not competing under your own instructor, class-mate, club member or whatever. Piper's judges were both men. On Sunday, our judge and ring steward were a husband/wife team. In the UK, the "ring steward" calls the heeling pattern while the judge marks you on a scrap sheet of paper. Then the "scoring steward" copies your exercise scores in pencil to a big sheet of paper posted at ringside, and the judge throws his original away. When everybody goes to lunch, the penciled score sheets are left up for anybody to alter. I guess Brits must be pretty trustworthy!

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