Pieka: Two Legs Towards Our Utility Title!

I’m so happy to share that Pieka and I earned two legs towards our Utility Obedience title!   One more and we have our title!  For those of you who aren’t familiar with competition obedience, Utility (often semi-jokingly called “Futility”) is the third and highest level of competition.   In the Companion Dog Sports Program (modeled in part after AKC), the exercises for Utility A are:

• Signals:  The dog must complete a short heel pattern, stand from heel, change positions (down/sit), then come to front & finish.  All commands, including “heel” can ONLY be hand signals.   The exercise is scored not only on the success of all commands, but also the precision – no “creeping forward” on the position changes and stand, a crisp recall, a straight front & finish.
• Scent Articles:  The handler will select and “scent” one of 5 identical articles.   The article will be placed in a “pile.”  The dog must correctly find and retrieve the scented article, bringing it to front, then finishing to heel.   The dog is scored on working briskly, finding the right article, retrieving promptly, and sitting close/straight in front/heel.
• Directed Jumping:   This is a two-part exercise.   The handler and dog will start at one end of the ring – the handler will send the dog across the ring, where it will turn and sit.   The dog must move briskly across the ring and respond promptly to the command to sit.   Then, at the judge’s indication, the handler will instruct the dog to jump over one of two jumps that are set offsides to the center.   The dog must take the jump and return to front.   The judge will instruct the handler to finish – then they will repeat the exercise with the other jump.   The dog is scored on its work, straight fronts, correct jump, etc.
• Directed Retrieve:  This is a two part exercise.  The dog and handler are positioned in the middle of the ring.   There are two rows of gloves, three per side, on the “short ends.”  When the judge commands, dog and handler turn to face a row and the dog is sent to retrieve a particular glove.   The dog must retrieve the indicated glove.   Then, they repeat on the other side, with a different glove.
• Stand for Exam:   The handler and the dog heel forward, at the judge’s indication the handler must “stand” the dog without pausing in motion.    The dog must hold the stay while being examined, then return to heel from 8-10 feet away when commanded.

We have had a BLAST training for Utility.  It is challenging, because it requires significant independent work and problem solving on the dog’s part.   The dog must put together complex behavior chains with limited opportunity for reinforcement.
Here is our second leg.   We received a score of 195.5/200.   Our ONLY mistake was that Pieka did not go far enough out on the second part of the directed jumping exercise – but I was SO thrilled that my game little girl still took that jump like a champ!  Pieka is a happy, happy worker and she tried her heart out for me.   I can honestly say that I’ll remember these few moments for the rest of my life.  Pieka is my first Utility-level dog.   We’re aiming for a February trial to hopefully try for that last leg on our title.