# easiest dog sport title...



## cmscott (Jun 29, 2011)

Assuming you are capable and your dog is capable, what is the easiest title to get? and for that matter - what is the hardest?

I might be indirectly asking which dog sport is easiest or hardest but I'd like to know what people think.


----------



## FG167 (Sep 22, 2010)

Lure coursing aptitude test title. Your dog either has the instincts and will do it, or they won't


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I agree, the CA or U-CA because there is no training, either they will do it or not. The CAX is not hard but just takes time since you need 12 legs and lure coursing meets rare.

Also I think the CGC (though it's not really a "title") because they are so cheap, widely available, and most dogs can do it with little formal training.


----------



## selzer (May 7, 2005)

I think a good place to start is a CGC, CGN, or BH. The BH being the most difficult of the three. The CGC is really a certificate program. You take the dog to classes or just sign up for the test. If he passes 10 tests, the dog gets a certificate. 

At that point, you probably have a dog that can manage to be trained and trialed for a title. 

The easiest title that I have gotten was probably the RN (Rally Novice), though Arwen's CD was really a piece of cake as well, she got her three legs in three shows, and took first each time. I think it depends on the handler which is easier for them to manage. 

Rally, the dog and handler have to know more maneuvers an be able to do them in order properly, but it is more relaxed, and will not have the same set of signs any two times in the ring. 

The CD is very predictable, but if you are going deaf, then it is next to impossible not to make mistakes. 

The ten tests for the CGC

1. Meet and Greet, the evaluator comes up to you and says high. Your dog sits or stands pleasantly and does not try to jump on her or maul her, pass.

2. May I pet your dog? the evaluator comes up, asks if they can pet your dog. You say yes, and she pets the dog usually under the chin, on the chest and up over the head. The dog does not maul her, pass.

3. Appearance and Grooming. the evaluator comes up and touches your dogs ears, both front paws, and runs a hand or brush down the back. You can hold your dog's head so that he does not lick her whole face while she touches the paws. It cannot be a death grip. The dog does not maul the evaluator. Pass.

4. Walking on a loose leash. The instructor calls out to go forward, turn left and right, about turn. The dog does not pull the handler everywhere and the leash manages to be loose. Perfect heal position is not penalized but it is not required. Pass.

5. Sit and Down. The instructor tells you to sit your dog, and without physically putting the dog into position, he sits. the instructor tells you to down your dog, and without body slamming your dog, the dog assumes the down position. Pass.

6. Stay and Recall. From the sit or down position, you tell the dog to stay, and go to the end of a 20 foot lead, turn around and come right back. The dog remains in position. You sit or down the dog, and then go 10 feet, turn and call the dog. The dog comes to you, and you are able to take the dog's collar. Pass.

7. Walking through a crowd. The evaluator asks for the millers to come in and walk around. Usually three or four spectators work fine for this. You take your dog amongst them. The dog can nose them, but cannot growl, maul, or drag you around out there. Pass. 

8. Reaction to a distraction. The evaluator has someone slam a door or drop a stainless steel pan. Your dog does not go through the ceiling. The evaluator has someone walk by with a walker, wheel chair, or has some one jog by about 10 feet in front of the dog. The dog does not chase, growl, snap, maul the person. Pass. 

9. Meet and greet with dogs. Two handlers with their dogs, or the handler and the evaluator with their dogs, generally walk toward each other with the dogs on their right sides (dogs on the outside). The handler's stop, exchange pleasantries, and walk on. (Good idea to tell your dog to SIT when you stop.) The dog does not cross in front of the handler to meet the other dog, does not bark like a fool, lunge, snap or otherwise act like an idiot. Pass.

10. Supervised Separation: You tell your dog to sit or down, and hand the leash over to a stranger, and then leave the sight of the dog, usually a room, but we have hid behind cars too. They time it and call you back after 3 minutes. Your dog does not have to stay in position, but he cannot whine incessantly and he cannot maul the holder or anyone else. Pass. 

The evaluator can fail you at any time if they see it, if your dog does something bad like charge another dog or snap at a person. But it is not considered a fail, just needing more work in an area. So you can take the test as many times as you need to. They will encourage you to continue to work with your dog. 

It is a good starting place.


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

I think rally is pretty easy...I've seen some pretty sad performances pass, at least at the lower levels. And with Gizmo and Kessy I never took a class or went to a match with them, they'd never even seen a rally sign before our first trial, but entered trials and got loads of titles, all the way up to RL3 (which is like an RE), with lots of placements in big classes. Granted, I did train at home and have done rally before, but I don't think I'd try that with many other sports!
IMO Schutzhund and HGH herding are the some of the most difficult titles. Both are very demanding of both the dog and handler. Kessy's HGH took us 2 years and there is no rushing it, and her Schh1 took us a year and a half of 2-3x weekly training. Also UD is very difficult, there are so many components to perfect.


----------



## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

Also, dock diving. 

At a flyball tournament there was all kinds of other stuff going on, and someone on my team (she has a lab) took her over to the dock diving and got a title or two over there. She'd never done any kind of training with her, just decided to give it a shot.


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Rally Novice was pretty easy. There was more training up front than CGC, lure coursing, etc but it was easy to find events to enter and the competition itself was not that challenging or nerve wracking. 

Flyball also, once you start competing you just rack up points. Pan earned 3/4 of a title just being an alternate on a team for one day. He only ran two heats total and nearly earned a title. However there are a gazillion levels of titles and some dogs have tens of thousands of points and have been competing for a decade.


----------



## GatorDog (Aug 17, 2011)

I think the CGC or TT are easy 'titles'. There isn't really up front training and the dog either passes or it doesn't. I have done any lure coursing but that sounds like a similar scenario. 

I don't think the BH is really easy at all, especially considering the fact that the entire (very long) routine is (or should be) mostly focused heeling.


----------



## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

CGC & BH are not titles, but a certificate. The BH is only necessary to get past to move on to the actual titles. HIT is a test, not a title.
So for all these 'titles' that are easy, what is the point of saying they are a title if they are so easy to rack up points or whatever? I can see if there are 'legs' to get to a certain level, then a title could be awarded....but getting a title for a dock dive, lure course run, or a flyball run doesn't seem very worthy(unless it is a record breaker!) Not that I'm bashing titles, but I think there should be some merit in awarding them.


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

You do have to earn legs. You need 3 qualifying runs for a U-CA, 12 for a U-CAX, 5 jumps for a dock diving division (must be in the same season, the slate is cleared every year), and for flyball you earn points and the title reflects your points. The point is it tells you where the dog is at in training/competition, if you know what's required of the title there's no guessing. Some titles require little training because they test what is in the dog (coursing aptitude, ATTS temperament, for example). It may be easy-peasy for my dog but there are many dogs that will never earn the title even if they trained for years. Whether or not there is merit, I guess that is for the individual to decide. My dogs work their butts off and have been in four totally different types of events in three different cities in one week. The most important thing is that they train hard and play harder. Actually SDA and Schutzhund are the only sports I can think of where you only have to do something *once* to earn a title. In flyball if you run Singles races TEN times (that's ten totally different tournaments, you don't get credits for multiple days the same weekend) all you get is a pin, lol.


----------



## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

I'd say CA lure coursing title. Either the dog likes to chase the lure or not. No training involved. Just let go of the dog and catch them at the end and you have earned yourself a leg. I would say it's the easiest and my dog would say it's the most fun he's had earning a leg towards a title.


----------



## Wolfgeist (Dec 4, 2010)

I would start with the CGN/CGC and HIC. Those are the easiest in my opinion. I wouldn't call the BH easy, really. Lure coursing aptitude definitely fairly easy to get. I haven't tried yet, but I think dock diving can yield an easy title?


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

ShatteringGlass said:


> I'd say CA lure coursing title. Either the dog likes to chase the lure or not. No training involved. Just let go of the dog and catch them at the end and you have earned yourself a leg. I would say it's the easiest and my dog would say it's the most fun he's had earning a leg towards a title.


Coursing is Nikon's *absolute* favorite! It's "easy" because there is no training, but at the same time I've seen plenty of dogs fail for any number of reasons (even other herders and sighthounds). Also when we course it's usually at a combined event and when a dog puts as much into it as Nikon I have to be careful because it takes a lot out of him (when it's so hot and humid). You can't tell a dog to hold back because they have five other events later in the day when they love coursing that much! I didn't course Nikon at all at the UKC Premier and am glad I didn't (don't tell him that!).


----------



## marbury (Apr 3, 2012)

Another advocate for coursing! So much fun. If you're doing it in tandem with conformation be sure to run after you're in the ring for two reasons; to conserve energy AND so you have a chance to check with other coursers to be sure nobody had their paws torn up. It's a hazard; I won't course my conformation dogs for that reason. Premier was horrible this year, and Perry's AKC cluster tore up three my AA's paws in one run. :/


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

The last UKC show I did my dog went straight from the course into the conformation ring (like we literally ran from the course to the ring) and he was so tired and panting. Much to my surprise he beat the other champions for his first GRCH leg! We went to the event to course and ended up entering conformation for fun but it was a success.


----------



## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

I'd say that the UD may be one of the hardest to obtain. It may be easier to train for than some others (like the HGH or the ScH3), but to actually go out and pass 3 times can be very, very difficult. There're so many ways to fail. On the other hand, you could (theoretically) do all of the training in your own basement with easily obtained equipment

I think the ScH3 is one of the hardest to train--many, many, many hours of work go into it--and driving to get to training and trials here in the US is very challenging. I suspect the HGH is similar as far as time commitment and hours of training required.


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I agree. For me the hardest part about SchH is that I just don't have access to what I need in any of the three phases. I live in the city, there is not acres of land for tracking. I can literally heel 5 steps in my yard before I have to turn. There's no A-frame or jump.  I drive 2.5 hours for good helperwork. There are multiple clubs with good helpers but all seem to be 2.5 hours away. That is impossible to do more than once a week and lately it's been more like once a month. If I had access to what is needed for training, Pan would be titled by now and Nikon would be finished/SchH3.


----------



## Catu (Sep 6, 2007)

Liesje said:


> That is impossible to do more than once a week and lately it's been more like once a month. If I had access to what is needed for training, Pan would be titled by now and Nikon would be finished/SchH3.


(Deep sigh...)

I, oh so! feel your pain...


----------



## Tiffseagles (May 12, 2010)

Some of the weight pull titles are also easy to obtain.

CA has been the easiest for us, but if you have a dog with little chase drive or that gets overwhelmed in that environment (like our other girl) it can be difficult or impossible to get.

Dock diving also can be 'easy' or 'difficult' depending on the dog. Our dog currently just takes an awkward flop off the dock. It will take lots of training for him whereas other dogs may be naturals at it.


----------



## angelas (Aug 23, 2003)

An easy title would be the RN. Think one of the hardest has got to be the GMOTCH (Grand Master Obedience Trial Champion), as it should be. There are several requirements for legs. One of my friends has been trying for two years for her dog's. This dog was in the top 10 all breeds last year and is ranked in the top 10 all breeds this year as well. She trials A LOT, and qualifies. She's many times over an OTCH, the sticking point is the minimum score.

The requirements:
-must have a MOTCH title.
-a minimum score of 195 points in both the Open B and Utility B classes at the same trial at ten (10) separate trials.
-pairs must be earned under a minimum of ten (10) different judges. Pairs may be counted under two (2) different judges, provided it’s the same trial.
-a high in trial with a score of 195 or higher out of the Open B class.
-a high in trial with a score of 195 or higher out of the Utility B class.
-the High In Trial do not need to be earned as part of a pair.


----------



## martemchik (Nov 23, 2010)

GMOTCH...crazyness...I just got to watch some fantastic dogs work at our club's trial this weekend and even the best ones mess up. The dog that won high in trial on Saturday, NQ'd on Sunday because she sat up during the out of sight down in Open class. A SchH3 dog NQ'd on Saturday in Open because she missed a jump. AKC obedience gets really difficult really quickly because of all the ways you can NQ. I mean...you can do all the exercises and then the dog sits up during the down and that's it, bye bye leg.

Can't imagine having to score over 195 in each trial...your dog has to be amazing. I mean there are judges that are just going to tick you for anything. A little lag in a heel, a sit that's not quite straight, a front that's not quite front enough. 5 points can go really fast. Then the high in trial part...what if you run into a really great dog that weekend and get beat out for that...you score 195s and still lose...

For actual titles I'd say RN is really really really easy. Once you get to UD or SchH 3 it must be really difficult. As many NQs as I saw this weekend, can't imagine doing a UDX. I'll give the props to SchH 3 for training, but you only have to do it all once at a trial...and of course there are 3 phases to it. But a UDX is just a pain in my opinion (hopefully I'll get one lol).


----------



## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Konotashi said:


> Also, dock diving.
> 
> At a flyball tournament there was all kinds of other stuff going on, and someone on my team (she has a lab) took her over to the dock diving and got a title or two over there. She'd never done any kind of training with her, just decided to give it a shot.


This is what I would have said, too - all the dog has to do is jump in the water.
Well it has to swim, not sink


----------



## angelas (Aug 23, 2003)

martemchik said:


> GMOTCH...crazyness...


The CKC also has the GCH (Grand Champion) and I've heard talk of adding a GCHX (Grand Champion Excellent). Their trying to keep people competing after they get the CH.

And yes, in one trial she blew 4 points by not sitting on two fronts and her heeling was a little wide and cost her 1.5 points. 

She's also from Calgary and says in that area it's possible to get a 200 and still not get HIT, but she can come to SK and rack up HITs with scores in the 180s.


----------



## Packen (Sep 14, 2008)

SchH titles are easy, I hear KNPV titles are hard but have never tried KNPV myself so just hearsay!


----------



## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

SchH training is easy - with the right dog - but finding a place to train regularly IS the difficult part!


----------



## VonKromeHaus (Jun 17, 2009)

Dock diving and doing WELL at it is a lot harder than what people think. The dog needs to be properly conditioned and trained to track the toy, regulate their strides, have confidence etc. 

I love seeing people who do NOTHING with their dogs knock sports by saying it's easy....if they are so easy...put your monies where your mouth is and ante up!! 

I do find some sports easier than others, but training venues have a lot to do with that.


----------



## Tiffseagles (May 12, 2010)

VonKromeHaus said:


> Dock diving and doing WELL at it is a lot harder than what people think. The dog needs to be properly conditioned and trained to track the toy, regulate their strides, have confidence etc.


This is true!

And the handler has to work on the timing of the release of the toy and has to have a good throw or even the best dog won't be jumping very well.


----------



## blackshep (Aug 3, 2012)

selzer said:


> 10. Supervised Separation: You tell your dog to sit or down, and hand the leash over to a stranger, and then leave the sight of the dog, usually a room, but we have hid behind cars too. They time it and call you back after 3 minutes. Your dog does not have to stay in position, but he cannot whine incessantly and he cannot maul the holder or anyone else. Pass.



Ugh, my dog would totally fail at this part, she freaks if I hand her off to someone. I have no idea how to fix it, we do it all the time and she freaks out each and every time!


----------



## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

blackshep said:


> Ugh, my dog would totally fail at this part, she freaks if I hand her off to someone. I have no idea how to fix it, we do it all the time and she freaks out each and every time!


Start by treating it like a stay instead of her worrying about someone else holding her--she has to be responsible for staying.


----------



## blackshep (Aug 3, 2012)

She's good at stays, it's just if someone is holding her back she goes bananas. Do you mean if they hold her on a loose leash and I tell her to stay? That might be worth a try...it's frustrating! She's so good about almost everything!

Thanks for that suggestion, I'm going to try it.


----------



## martemchik (Nov 23, 2010)

That's how the CGC test is...they don't have to hold her back. If you can tell your dog to stay, and hand the leash to someone else and walk away its perfectly fine. Just that they actually get a little more leeway and its not a full blown out of sight stay. The dog can switch positions...it can even stand up and walk around a bit, but the leash can't get super tight for too long I believe. So it can't look like the person is actually physically trying to prevent your dog from going to you.


----------



## blackshep (Aug 3, 2012)

If I hand the leash to someone and she feels physically restrained if I even take one step back she has a fit! lol

Yet I can do a down-stay, drop the leash and walk away with other people around in class and she's fine.

I'm going to try the loose leash thing with the stay, maybe if she doesn't feel like they are taking her away, she'll be ok. She's so sweet and loves people, but holy hannah, when they try and hold her back it's like a personal tragedy for her!


----------



## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

Starting Jan 2013, the CGC will be a title. Anyone who has it now can have it changed from a certificate to a title with a form and $20.


----------

