Author Archives: Chris Brooks

Obedience Trial – Preferred Classes Option for Clubs

From the January 10, 2017 AKC Board Meeting Minutes:

Allow Obedience Preferred Class Trials Without Regular Classes

The Board VOTED to allow clubs licensed for obedience to hold trials limited to the Preferred classes without offering the Regular classes. A Preferred class trial is defined as one where the club offers the Preferred Novice, Preferred Open and/or the Preferred Utility classes without the Regular AKC classes. The Non-Regular classes will be allowed to utilize the Preferred class jump heights in all obedience trials. Clubs still will have the ability to offer the optional or non-regular classes like Beginner Novice and Veterans in addition to the Regular or Preferred class trials. This Regulations change is effective February 1, 2017. (Changes underlined)

Obedience Regulations CHAPTER 1 GENERAL REGULATIONS Section 4. Obedience Classes Offered. Clubs may elect at their option to apply to hold a licensed or member obedience trial limited to the Regular and/or Preferred classes.  A licensed or member obedience trial need not include all the regular or preferred obedience classes, but a club will not be approved to hold the upper level classes without the lower level classes being offered in the same titling program.   For either the Regular or Preferred class titling path, a club will not be approved to hold the Open classes unless it also holds the Novice classes. Nor will it be approved to hold the Utility classes unless it also holds the Novice and the Open classes.

Any club that has been approved to hold a licensed or member obedience trial for the Regular and/or Preferred classes may also offer a mix of the optional classes and/or non-regular classes upon AKC approval.

Rally Changes Proposed (AKC, January 2017)

The following is an excerpt from the January 2017 AC Board minutes.

COMPANION AND PERFORMANCE Doug Ljungren, Vice President Sports and Events, Pamela Manaton, Director of Obedience, Rally and Tracking, Carrie DeYoung, Director of Agility, and Mary Burch, Director of CGC, participated in this portion of the meeting by teleconference.

Rally Program Enhancements

The Board reviewed a Staff recommendation to create two additional Rally classes – the Intermediate class and the Master class. In terms of difficulty, the Intermediate class is between the current Novice and Advanced classes. The Master class will be more difficult than the Excellent class. There will be titles associated with these new classes. In addition, a Rally Championship prefix title (RACH) is recommended for dogs that achieve a given number of triple Qs (qualify in the Advanced, Excellent and Master class at the same trial) plus earn a given number of points from the Master class. If approved, clubs may start to apply for events with these new classes on August1, 2017 for events held on or after December 1, 2017. This will be discussed further at the February meeting.