# UKC - Exactly how many titles are there?



## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

I know there are people here to show AKC and UKC, but happened to be looking at Cavon's signature (good thing Finnegan does not carry business cards...might be hard to fit), and was curious exactly how many titles can one dog actually attain? What is the top number of titles a dog has received and what breed? I find it very interesting.

I also wonder how titles really play into breeding. If Finnegan, for instance, was bred, what is the likelihood that his offspring would be predisposed to being able to excel in competiton?

I am just getting ready to enroll Sunny in Rally or Agility just for fun, but I do find the topic interesting.


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## cavon (Aug 10, 2010)

Not all of Finnegan's titles are from the UKC, he has titles from the UKC, AKC, CKC & CARO.

I know of a greyhound who has more than 85 titles!

I'll leave the breeding question to the experts!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

As with Finnegan, not all of Lily's titles are from one venue which is how her list is starting to get long (although not as long as the red boy yet). Also think about this, if you look at the list of dog who qualify for the AKC National Obedience Invitational you will see dogs that are UDX35, etc, meaning the dog and handler have double qualified open and utility 350 times. Or for the National Agility invitational MACH8, meaning 80 double Qs in standard and jumpers excellent. Kudos to all these dogs and their handlers. They have stamina along with talent.


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

Most dogs can obtain titles if their owners are inclined to do that. Agility titles are harder to get and you have to both have a dog inclined to want to do that plus an owner willing to put in the training time as well as competition time. The breeder of my dogs decided to get a weight pull title on one of her poodles for fun. LOL. Can you imagine a weight pulling poodle? 

There are lots and lots of titles. Here is a good site that lists most, if not all of them (I don't see dock jumpers, for example):
Dog Titles & Abbreviations

Since many dogs are capable of receiving titles and don't because their owners choose not to do that, it is only a very small part of the picture on whether to breed or not. Getting a conformation title means the dog looks decent, but doesn't tell you much about whether a dog can preform. 

If I wanted an agility dog, I do think you need a certain amount of speed and intelligence and boldness that not all dogs possess. Successful lure coursers need some prey drive. Titled dock jumpers must have incredibly powerful rear ends, prey drive and speed. Agility dogs must have an extreme desire to please their owners, speed, athleticism and intelligence. In those cases I might go looking for dogs that have titled or come from lines with titles or if not titles some examples of ability. 

Conformation dogs only must look pretty. A poor conformation dog with titles is still a dog I don't think should be bred, but a good conformation dog without titles only means an owner didn't pursue that. I would look closer to see if the dog was capable of titling in obedience or athletic events. Conformation takes as much time, money and energy as titling in athletic events. It's hard to do both!

It would be nice if conformation titles always meant a dog was structured in such a way that they are physically capable of competing in these sports. Alas, I don't always agree with that, especially in standard poodles.


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## cavon (Aug 10, 2010)

don't imagine a poodle doing it, watch a poodle doing it!!!


FinneganStdPoodle - YouTube

in the video, Finnegan maxed out at 795 lbs! We haven't earned our title in this sport ~ yet.


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

OMG, gee if Finnegan can pull that, let's see Sunny could pull....... don't you worry about the dog pulling its back out or something?


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

Outwest -- your comment: If I wanted an agility dog, I do think you need a certain amount of speed and intelligence and boldness that not all dogs possess. Successful lure coursers need some prey drive. Titled dock jumpers must have incredibly powerful rear ends, prey drive and speed. Agility dogs must have an extreme desire to please their owners, speed, athleticism and intelligence. In those cases I might go looking for dogs that have titled or come from lines with titles or if not titles some examples of ability. 

That's my question --- does it actually pass down through breeding? Just because a dog gets titled in agility, for instance, and does well. Does it stand to reason that offspring will also, genetically, be predisposed to the same skills?


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## cavon (Aug 10, 2010)

liljaker said:


> OMG, gee if Finnegan can pull that, let's see Sunny could pull....... don't you worry about the dog pulling its back out or something?


Any size dog can do it and the weight that they are required to pull to qualify depends on their own weight. In the UKC, a dog must pull 8 times its weight 3 times to earn a UWP title. The trial on the video was for another organization that requires the dog to pull 12 times it's weight once to earn it's begginer level title.

There are toy poodles, Basenji's and other smaller breeds that participate in this sport, it is amazing to watch. 

First the dog starts out just wearing the harness, then hooked up to a small cart with no additional weight, then one weight is added and so on and so forth.

As with any sport, there is always the potential of an injury. The dog has to be in good shape to begin with and then it is up to the owner to know when their dog is at it's limit and not force it to do more. The harness is also made to distribute the weight so the dog is not pulling with just it's neck or any one part of it's back/shoulders. They have to hunker down and use their whole body to do it. the biggest effort is required to get the sled/cart moving at the beginning.

When you watch the video, you see that Finnegan's tail is wagging the whole time, he is having a good time. He didn't just start at that weight, he started lower and weight was added on subsequent pulls until he was at the 795 lbs. His muscles were good an warmed up when he made this last attempt. He pulled it as much as he could and you can see that he really got his shoulders down into it when he started moving it, but he just couldn't make it across the finish line. Too bad, because if he had been able to take two more steps, he would have earned his title.

He gave it his best try and I never ask for anything more than that. After he times out, you can see that I gave him a little help so that he could pull it across the finish line and end with a positive experience and there is lots of clapping and hugging of the Big Red Dog going on! 

His two favorite things after Lure Coursing are cuddles and an audience ~ and not necessarily in that order.


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

liljaker said:


> Outwest -- your comment: If I wanted an agility dog, I do think you need a certain amount of speed and intelligence and boldness that not all dogs possess. Successful lure coursers need some prey drive. Titled dock jumpers must have incredibly powerful rear ends, prey drive and speed. Agility dogs must have an extreme desire to please their owners, speed, athleticism and intelligence. In those cases I might go looking for dogs that have titled or come from lines with titles or if not titles some examples of ability.
> 
> That's my question --- does it actually pass down through breeding? Just because a dog gets titled in agility, for instance, and does well. Does it stand to reason that offspring will also, genetically, be predisposed to the same skills?


Yes, those skills and abilities are passed down through breeding. Of course, we have to remember that there is a litter of 4-10 puppies and within that litter will be a range of abilities. In Jazz' litter one person had her trainer come and do a test on them along with the temperament testing. A couple of the puppies excelled over the others in that test. All puppies have their own personalities. In Bonnies litter most of the puppies are capable of dog sports. Here's her sister doing dock jumping (she won first place Junior her first time out):









Here's Bonnie, who has a great ability to jump high for her size. Bonnie will never have a dock jumping title because there really isn't any dock jumping around here.  :









Yes, those abilities are most certainly part of the breedings, but I think there will be puppies in litters with abilities that only need to be tapped, whether they come from athletic titled parents or not. The only titles Bonnie has are UKC GrCh conformation and CGC. I have been thinking about getting more into agility and have been playing around with it now that she is over 1 1/2 years old and i can allow her to trun, run and jump without restriction due to growing. She doesn't have to jump more than a couple feet for it. It is more about training, training, training than the physical ability to do it, which she does have.

They should have a title for tricks.  She excells in tricks. LOL


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

cavon said:


> don't imagine a poodle doing it, watch a poodle doing it!!!
> 
> 
> FinneganStdPoodle - YouTube
> ...


One of Bonnie's Gma's has a WP title. I always giggle when thinking about a poodle as a weight pull champion. Finnegan looks great, but I don't think he likes it as much as lure coursing. LOL


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## cavon (Aug 10, 2010)

You are right, Outwest, Lure coursing is Finnegan's absolute favorite!

Several of the Bijou poodles have WP titles as well, even one of the girls!

He does rally and obedience for me and weight pulling he likes, but I don't think he is 100% convinced about it.

The other sport that Finnegan LOVES is agility, From the time he was a puppy he took to the equipment without any fear, but his poodle puppy zoomies would take over just about every time and I would spend 10 minutes trying to corral him. 

Now that he has matured and settled and has better impulse control, we will be taking classes again and hopefully be going to trial in the future. 

I would love to see you get out with Bonnie and trial her in a performance event, she's FLYING over that bar in the picture!


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