Obedience not for us?

Birch was not the obedience type as a young dog. He was very distracted. Interestingly he could do agility because it was quicker moving but he could not focus with the duration needed for obedience. He was ADD and in constant motion.

He was neutered at 15 months, not for obedience but other reasons. I put obedience on the shelf and just sort of forgot about it and worked on other things. I picked it up last spring when he was 2.5yrs old and I thought wow what an improvement and made up my mind to try again. Then I got Celtic and with training a puppy back on the shelf he went.

This spring with Celtic grown up and at the point where he is livable, I decided that Birch would try obedience again at 3.5yrs. OMG what I difference. I seriously thought who are you and what have you done with my dog. His focus was amazing, he learned so fast and was so into the game. He is now almost trained though Novice and retrieving and ready to start Open(level 2).

I am still a bit nervous about how he will do in shows so we are starting with beginners Novice and rally and showing in a month which we ware lucky to have here. He probably could do Novice but I want to make it positive.

Birch already is a great agility dog but he is turning into a good obedience dog too. He just needed to grow up and mature mentally. It was hard for me because by the time my other dogs were 3.5yrs- Justice and Ember where past utility(level 3) in comps and working on advanced titles UDX and OTCH. Even Diva had her Open titles. Just like kids, they mature at different rates.

I also think with obedience , it just takes them longer to proof in different environments. Run though at different places and around lots of distracts is the key. First learn the behavior ,then add time and distance , then distractions. build it up over time and that really can take time.
 
There is a lot of information here and it's spot on!

Not all dogs like being in trial environments. They shut down, loose their minds, or any number of other things. We have one member of the forums who love agility but her dog is so ill-behaved at trials, regardless of what she's done to try and correct it, she can't enter him in shows.

It could be you have a dog that likes the learning and the work but not the trial atmosphere.

We have a number of years with our dogs. We don't have to do everything NOW! Set obedience aside and try something else like agility, herding, or any other sport in your area. Come back to obedience in a few years after your dog has mentally matured.

If you want to try rally, you don't need local classes. The organizations that offer rally post their station signs and instructions for performance of each station online:
 
I agree nerves would effect him. Have you tried rally?

I bought my pup with every intention of doing low level obedience titles. Never did. Stict obedience wasn't his thing. We went through advanced obedience training but he would pick up . on my nerves even in class testing. He needed mTurity but timing wrong when ThT came in. He was an obedient pet but not good enough for competitive. Rally would have been a better fit but we didnt have that 15years ago that i had heard of. Agilty was. Perfect fit but his one knee was to going to permit that.
 
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