My philosophy on competitive obedience training is that it is a trainer’s sport. The first time I watched a utility run, I was enthralled and made it my goal to take a dog to that level of competition. My ideal obedience picture is one where the dog is a joyful participant. It is a challenging activity and one that is not as intrinsically rewarding as other sports. Pass and fail are based on ability to respond to cues precisely and without errors. The teamwork that needs to be developed for success is dependent on the team establishing clear communication and fully understanding motivation. For those reasons, I really find that a dog who has an understanding of moving their body in precise ways to perform cues, sustaining criteria, performing amid tough distractions, understanding chains, delayed reinforcement, etc, has an excellent foundation to learn any other sport. For that reason, I use the competition obedience exercises as a medium to map out my foundation with my dogs.

My tollers are awesome obedience partners. Slice was among the first ‘clicker trained’/R+ trained (trained with no applied aversives) MOTCH in Canada. Her achievements include career highs of 199.5 in Open and 198 in Utility. She was a reliable competitor who went 5/6 in Utility A in one weekend to my very first UD. She had 13 career all breed high in trials and that total is less than the number of trial weekends we showed. I miss her dearly. Fizz is a sweet, focused and dependable partner who has had perfect scores in rally, multiple high in class in both obedience and rally, and earned her CD at age 2. Scout is showing me her budding talent by winning all three of her Rally Novice B classes at her very first event (placing over 8-10+ dogs per round) and I’m excited for her future in the sport!

There are many fantastic competitive toller obedience and rally teams around the world. Many people have found their way into these sports because their dogs enjoyed the training so much! I am happy to help or point you in the direction of my favourite resources.