# What are your favorite “titling” organizations?



## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Tekno and I would like to pick up some more certificates and letters after his name. What organizations and sports do you guys like? We can do just about anything from parkour to tracking


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I stick with AKC sports for a couple of reasons. First those are the only titles that can be added to the dog's registered names. Lily has titles in WCRL rally and CPE agility in addition to her AKC titles but they aren't recognized by AKC, The other thing is that there are small but often significant differences between venue rules that they are more than I care to memorize for myself that I find we do better if I have the focus on rules I know well.

That said I know plenty of people who do lots of CPE agility either for its own sake or for "practice" for AKC agility and a few who do CPDT obedience as prep for AKC obedience as well.

As long as you both have fun and the activity increases the bond you have with your dog it is all for the good of course.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Catherine is right about only AKC titles are added to an AKC registered name. However I find value in other organizations and it doesn’t bother me that those titles aren’t attached to the AKC name. I’m not an AKC snob like some of my friends.

OTOH if I was an AKC breeder I definitely would want all or most titles earned to be attached. If people research AKC dogs they wouldn‘t have any way to know about accomplishments in other venues without asking. If you are considering showing Tekno in conformation and want to put him out for stud, you would want to stick to AKC

Babykins has AKC titles in Obedience, Rally, Agility, Scentwork and Trick dog. But I’ve enjoyed WCRL rally which has some open and utility exercises which are challenging. Catherine is right about the different rules… they can be nit picky and tricky to remember the difference. CPE agility is huge where I live, much more popular. If you love competing in agility you definitely do CPE. CWags as a great place to start competing in Scentwork, less complicated than AKC and they have many more trials in my area than AKC. We’re also competing in Scentwork in CPE.

I’d rather pick and choose based on what is fun and easily available locally than stick to one organization. There are regional differences, we don’t have UKC for example.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

lily cd re said:


> I stick with AKC sports for a couple of reasons. First those are the only titles that can be added to the dog's registered names. Lily has titles in WCRL rally and CPE agility in addition to her AKC titles but they aren't recognized by AKC, The other thing is that there are small but often significant differences between venue rules that they are more than I care to memorize for myself that I find we do better if I have the focus on rules I know well.
> 
> That said I know plenty of people who do lots of CPE agility either for its own sake or for "practice" for AKC agility and a few who do CPDT obedience as prep for AKC obedience as well.
> 
> As long as you both have fun and the activity increases the bond you have with your dog it is all for the good of course.


Oh I see people put their NACSW titles after there dogs names all the time. I guess I should specify that it’s ok if it’s not “official”. The reason Im looking for more than AKC is because the events aren’t frequent around me and the things we’re interested in will probably take a couple years before we get any serious titles but I don’t want to wait that long to trial and have fun 😅 Also I want him to be rock solid and ring ready by the time we hit the AKC rings


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

Skylar said:


> Catherine is right about only AKC titles are added to an AKC registered name. However I find value in other organizations and it doesn’t bother me that those titles aren’t attached to the AKC name. I’m not an AKC snob like some of my friends.
> 
> OTOH if I was an AKC breeder I definitely would want all or most titles earned to be attached. If people research AKC dogs they wouldn‘t have any way to know about accomplishments in other venues without asking. If you are considering showing Tekno in conformation and want to put him out for stud, you would want to stick to AKC
> 
> ...


Oh no this boy will not be having any babies. We just want to title to show how brilliant he is and have some fun.

Thank you for the organizations. Yeah I really want to get to more trials soon but don’t want to wait around for the few and far between AKC events, and some of them are just above our pay grade right now. We’re going to show in UKC conformation probably late next year. AKC Im probably going to wait until he’s around 3-4 years old use a handler tbh

Tekno is on fire when it comes to scentwork. Ill see if there are any CWAG trials near us


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Phaz23 said:


> Oh I see people put their NACSW titles after there dogs names all the time.


But you will never see those titles if you look up the dog on the AKC website nor in any AKC documents. My club publishes and sells a booklet at the obedience and rally competitions listing all the dogs who are competing in the trial. You will only see AKC titles next to each competing dog.

My other club has a yearly party where they publish booklets with everyone’s dogs and titles they earned each year. There they show all titles irregardless of the organization.


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

So happy to hear Tekno is enjoying scentwork! I was involved in NACSW in the early days, and Mia had a blast. It was hard to keep up when we moved to a deadzone, but we later switched to AKC's version. Dogs love it, and I think it does a lot to improve the bond and the handler's patience and ability to read the dog. Glad you're already doing this with him!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

i didn't really mean to come off like an AKC snob (although my noting the recording of the dog's titles as the first thing I mentioned my have seemed so). The more important thing really is that I need to focus on following the rules correctly so I Q matters more but more for not stressing about whether I know what I am doing than anything else. That is what helps me have fun! I truly believe that bonding with and improving the relationship with the dog who is my team mate matters the most.

The other thing mentioned by Skylar and Liz that is important is accessability of the sport and organization. Partly because of COVID and partly because of geography of being on an island that people view as hard to access has restricted the availability of various sorts of events. On Long Island we have AKC obedience, rally and agility along with CPE agility. We have virtually no WCRL, UKC ir CDPT events on Long Island or even close by in ?Westchester County, close enough in Connecticut or New Jersey or perhaps often enough in those locations to make pursuing titles in those events worth considering. We used to have WCRL rally and Lily and I earned titles there. CPE agility is around for us, but my knees keep telling me no on doing any agility at all.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> i didn't really mean to come off like an AKC snob


I hope you didn’t think I was calling you an AKC snob… I was using that to describe a small group of people in my AKC club.



lily cd re said:


> I need to focus on following the rules correctly so I Q


I don’t think most people realize how these tiny differences which they probably wouldn’t even notice if you showed them a video can impact your score and even if you earn a Q. In AKC rally if your dog doesn’t follow your command, you can give a second command but you can’t in WCRL In one rally when You send your dog around you, you move forward before your dog comes into heel position, in the other you move forward when your dog is in heel position. We are talking inches. The people I see doing both tend to focus on only competing in rally. They don’t do other sports so they can focus on keeping things straight.

Part of the fun is the mental challenge of remembering all these details.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Skylar, No I didn't take any offense at your comment, but I know those types of people too and I try not to fall in with those sorts of cliques and wanted to remind myself on that!

And yes remembering the rules and attending to the details is one of the neat challenges. At my private lesson with Javelin this morning Deb got on me about my vocabulary for the young man. She noted that I use a couple of different orders for the same thing (attention at heel, ready to work). Just because Lily will respond to several different orders doesn't mean he will. Since he is a noob in many ways (COVID interrupted) she told me to pick one order and reinforce it a lot to be fair to him. Even just in one hour "get close" got well reinforced and clearly took on a lot more meaning for him. Not a rule, but a small snippet out of the game that I have to remember to play by.


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## TeamHellhound (Feb 5, 2021)

Any organization only lists their titles in their database, unless they have a title recognition agreement with another organization, like BHA and the AKC and UKC, or DMWYD and AKC. That doesn't mean that you can't list every bit of alphabet soup your dog has on your personal pages or website. Lemme see if I can remember all of Leo's.... CA S-ADP-PrCH S-ADP-CH Speed Queen Leontine Von Washateria TKD ETD 2K9 S-ADP-L3(GC) S-ADP-L2(2) S-ADP-FS1 D-CRO-Preliminary GPS-PS GPS-PT OD-WD5 PTH UASA ICN Level 1.. That's just listing the highest title(s) that she's earned in each organization's titling track. Lily has a comparable string of letters, and Simon is working on his. Forum signatures don't give you enough spaces.  

These are organizations that I have titled dogs with:

All Dogs Parkour 
American Kennel Club
Cyber Rally-O
Do More With Your Dog
DZ Pawkour
GeoPup Sports
International Canine Events
International Dog Parkour Association
Non-Competitive Obedience Association
Outdoor Dog
United Kennel Club
Universal Canine All Stars

I have a list of organizations in the US and Canada, broken down by sport/type, that I would share here, but it's three pages long.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

lily cd re said:


> Skylar, No I didn't take any offense at your comment, but I know those types of people too and I try not to fall in with those sorts of cliques and wanted to remind myself on that!
> 
> And yes remembering the rules and attending to the details is one of the neat challenges. At my private lesson with Javelin this morning Deb got on me about my vocabulary for the young man. She noted that I use a couple of different orders for the same thing (attention at heel, ready to work). Just because Lily will respond to several different orders doesn't mean he will. Since he is a noob in many ways (COVID interrupted) she told me to pick one order and reinforce it a lot to be fair to him. Even just in one hour "get close" got well reinforced and clearly took on a lot more meaning for him. Not a rule, but a small snippet out of the game that I have to remember to play by.


oh shoot, I do the same thing but they do mean something a bit different.
”Get Ready” - run to heel position and get ready to work.
“Get In” - pull your butt in towards my leg
“Closer” - pull your whole body closer and back into position
“With me” - informal heel, just walk near me

I know I need to reduce these but Im still experimenting with which ones should stay or go 😅


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

TeamHellhound said:


> Any organization only lists their titles in their database, unless they have a title recognition agreement with another organization, like BHA and the AKC and UKC, or DMWYD and AKC. That doesn't mean that you can't list every bit of alphabet soup your dog has on your personal pages or website. Lemme see if I can remember all of Leo's.... CA S-ADP-PrCH S-ADP-CH Speed Queen Leontine Von Washateria TKD ETD 2K9 S-ADP-L3(GC) S-ADP-L2(2) S-ADP-FS1 D-CRO-Preliminary GPS-PS GPS-PT OD-WD5 PTH UASA ICN Level 1.. That's just listing the highest title(s) that she's earned in each organization's titling track. Lily has a comparable string of letters, and Simon is working on his. Forum signatures don't give you enough spaces.
> 
> These are organizations that I have titled dogs with:
> 
> ...


oh yeah I understand that- I think it was a miscommunication earlier but Im not super concerned with people being able to look up the title. Im not even sure who would care lol It would be for personal use and satisfaction, and Clarion can of course brag about it if they would like 😊


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Rather than developing a whole vocabulary based having Tekno correct his position I would just say uh uh or oops and then break out of the incorrect position or action and redo the exercise. That will get rid of a fair amount of your extraneous vocabulary.. Make sure you make it clear when he is correct so that he knows he will only "get paid" when he is right.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

lily cd re said:


> Rather than developing a whole vocab ulary based having Tekno correct his position I would just say uh uh or oops and then break out of the incorrect position or action and redo the exercise. That will get rid of a fair amount of your extraneous vocabulary.. Make sure you make it clear when he is correct so that he knows he will only "get paid" when he is right.


Oh yeah that makes sense 😅😅

I think the vocab developed from pivot/platform work and teaching the side step and such but yes probably time to fade those words out or at least not use them for heeling 😊


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

I do CPE, AKC, and occasionally TDAA and ASCA, and we only do agility.

CPE tends to be a friendlier venue, and a little looser on the rules. That said, it took me a while to learn all the different games. AKC has far fewer variations and less rules to memorize. CPE events are usually cheaper to enter so that’s a consideration when you’re first starting out and not sure how they’ll do. 

If you have ASCA (Australian Shepard club) around you that’s also a good venue that all breeds can enter. They’re more affordable and you can actually do training in the ring when your dog messes up, which is very helpful. My trainer breeds Aussies, so she has a few trials a year at her place.

TDAA (teacupagility) is another fun venue, similar to CPE. Only dogs under 16 inches can enter and the equipment is a little smaller. Some people worry about switching back and forth with equipment size, but my dogs didn’t have a problem. They give you a period at the beginning of each trial to orient to the smaller equipment. I know the term “teacup“ has a bad connotation but it is a reputable organization. The smaller equipment is less stress on the joints. it also is more affordable than AKC. 

AKC events tend to be a bit more serious with more breeders and intact dogs. However, other than a couple snarky comments from one person when we first started competing, I’ve found people pretty welcoming in that venue- it is a different atmosphere though. 

I enjoy doing both and now that I know the rules of the games in CPE I really enjoy the strategy. Gracie has her championship now in CPE though so I’ll pivot back to AKC to keep working on her MACH.

Whatever you do, just enjoy it, it’s a great way to bond with your dog and become a better trainer. Although I will say Gracie is a better dog than I am a handler, but she compensates for me, lol!

I


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## TeamHellhound (Feb 5, 2021)

I'm going to see if saving it as a PDF file will let me attach my list of dog sports organizations. I didn't bother listing conformation, or things like herding or hunting sports that are limited to only one breed or group of breeds, so there are several that aren't listed.


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## MaizieFrosty (Apr 12, 2019)

NASDA and Barn Hunt. They are the most low-key and positive that I've done. The dogs get SO excited when we get to those venues to see their old friends (the judges! haha).


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