Competitive Obedience Training for the Small Dog

Features

• Competitive obedience is a competition held by dog organizations such as the American Kennel Club that allows you to demonstrate your dog's obedience. In the novice class, your dog must heel with and without a leash, come when called, stand for a physical examination and do sit and down stays in a group. In the open class, all these actions, with the addition of jumps and retrieving, are performed off leash. The utility class adds scent discrimination, directed retrieves and silent signal exercises. Dogs receive titles when they earn qualifying scores under three judges in the class.

Advantages

• Competitive obedience training may not be as common for small dogs, but there are several advantages to getting a small dog for competition. First of all, there are fewer dogs in the small dog competitive classes, so records are easier to break and dog experts are always more impressed at successes accomplished with small dog breeds. Small dogs are smart, eager to learn and fun to own. They also have longer life spans and thus can compete longer, giving you more rewards for the training time invested.

Disadvantages

• However, training can often take longer with small dogs because of the disadvantages working against them. Not only were the competitive obedience standards not written with small dogs in mind but breeders of small dogs do not breed them to excel at these competitions. In addition, many trainers are not familiar with the training of small dogs and may use methods that are less effective or even harmful. For example, physical corrections shouldn't be used on toy breeds because they can cause severe damage.

Training Basic Skills

• Training a small dog to do basic obedience is often similar to teaching a large dog. For example, there is no difference in training recall for dogs of any size. However, some skills, such as heel, are a little more difficult simply because of size. Teaching heel with treat training requires using rewards, and bending down to give those rewards can be tedious. One tip is to use a spoon covered with peanut butter or liver paste that you can easily drop to your side. Be generous with the treats early in training, especially when teaching the down. Downs can be vulnerable for small dogs, so make sure you don't use punishments and make lying down very rewarding.

Training Special Skills

• Training competition-specific skills are also very similar. However, it can be difficult to find retrieving objects and jumps that are specifically sized to your toy breed. You may have to make your own. When beginning retrieves and jumps, keep the jumps and objects small so your dog isn't intimidated or uncomfortable early in training. This will make later stages of training more difficult.