.com Forum · Obedience Forum

So I have two dogs with CD titles. Most of my session stuff is at 20.
Now my dogs haven't Q'ed in months. What am I doing wrong?

I'll message mournebrake the link to this thread, she is the obedience guru.

I'd imagine that, if you're working on Open, it will probably take considerably longer to get a CDX than the CD, which is comparable to RL obedience in my opinion. It took me and my dog (in real life) 2 years before we got our CDX title and there were many, many NQs before that first Q. His CD, on the other hand, was obtained in 3 shows.

I haven't participated in Obedience shows on showdog for a while, however, but I do remember it taking a while (and it depending on the breed's trainability, etc.)

There seems to be a problem with obedience Q at the moment.

I have 8 dogs (across 3 kennels) all competing for UD titles plus 1 dog competing for CDX. These are old (above 300 days) dogs retired on my couch so they are a bit slow and lazy (that's what I'm telling myself anyway). I have them entered in trials daily and have been training (sessioning) the ones that needed a final boost whilst we've had extra free sessions (a lovely bonus thanks Jeff).

My findings: I can't Q anything!!! Normally these dogs would Q and make up easily but whatever I do I can't get titles on them. There's no consistency now with marks, one day 1 dog will NQ on Signal, next day it'll Q signal and fail scent which it Q'd the day before - makes no sense at all.

I've had remarks like "owner has too many dogs entered" (3 dogs entered); "this dog appears stressed" (lazy couch lover who doesn't know what stress is) - no one day are any 1 dog's marks the same or better than the day before even after a training session. I'm baffled and frustrated, and on the verge of contacting Jeff, HOWEVER it's a bit of an experiment to see if I can Q them, and if so exactly how many sessions once they reach 20 are needed to do this.

I remember reading that some breeds Q (train to required level) faster than others but as I've titled Komondors, Bergamasco, Mudis, Pumis, American Foxhounds, Bloodhounds, Otterhounds, Pulis and SWD to UD I've never found any of these breeds to be faster, or slower. What I have found is the younger the dog is when you start training the faster it seems to Q, I have an 18 day old Kom who will gain CD tomorrow at 19 days - she NQ'd day 14,15,16 and Q'd 17,18, she'll then immediately go up to Open day 20 and should gain CDX by day 22 (if she behaves).

If I can't Q any of the dogs in question by this weekend I'll prepare a message outlining our concerns and get it to Jeff, however remember we currently don't pay to compete in SD obedience so it's free shows in theory.

Finally I've messaged Jeff - can't Q anything!!

Jeff,
could you please look at the obedience Q requirements. I have dogs competing for UD titles who are NQ daily on scent 1 and 2.
These dogs are sessioned daily and have been for weeks now with 20+ for scent, still they NQ. I want to know why the requirement for Q seems to be out of reach now. Also what exactly is meant by scent 1 and 2 as there appears to be only one scent exercise (directed retrieve is marked separately).
Thanks

Hopefully there is error somewhere. I haven't Q'ed in months. I am about to give up on it.