The new Obedience Regional Competitions were developed to provide an additional avenue for exhibitors to qualify for the National Obedience Championship (NOC).

These competitions will not replace the current qualifying methods as outlined in the AKC Obedience Regulations for the NOC, but are intended to give exhibitors and their dogs another avenue to qualify for an invitation to compete at the NOC.

The requirements to qualify at a regional competition can be found in Chapter 8, Section 2 of the AKC Obedience Regulations but have also been listed on this page; see below.

Please note: In the event an exhibitor qualifies by both methods for the NOC, the traditional method (OTCH Points and/or Breed Ranking) and in one or more regional competitions, the selection process will be as follows:

1. OTCH points and/or Breed Obedience Ranking will take precedent over the placement at the Regional Level.
2. If a dog is selected by OTCH points and/or Breed Obedience Ranking the placement at the regional level will be awarded to the next highest scoring dog, based on points, from the affected regional competition.
3. All non-qualifying (NQ) scores will be counted as zero and will be included in the cumulative score.
4. Only the top scores will be listed for each event up to 20 dogs in the online results.

AKC Obedience Regulations – Chapter 13 – Effective July 1, 2012

Section 2. AKC Regional Competitions. The American Kennel Club will identify yearly the events/shows to be regional qualifying events for the next year. Events will be selected based on criteria established by the American Kennel Club Companion Events Department. Regions will be based on divisions currently established by the AKC Companion Events Department. The only exception will be the division containing Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, which will be combined as one division, with separate qualification criteria to be set. For all divisions, the top four dogs based on the qualification criteria as established by the Companion Events Department will be invited to attend the American Kennel Club National Obedience Event.

The qualification time period for regional competitors will be from December 1 to November 30 for qualification to attend the National Obedience Championship following the November 30 cut-off date.