Proposals 

The Obedience Liaison Council wish to seek the views and opinions of all the participants within the discipline, in regards to the proposals and discussion items on the agenda, ready for the next meeting due to take place on the 20th July 2017.

Please only fill this questionnaire in once. Closing date for submitting your answers is the 11th July 2017.

Question Title

* 1. Region: 

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* 2.
Region:

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* 3.
Proposed amendment to Regulation G.35.h.

Miss F Godfrey                                             Mr K Fernandez

Mr Fernandez, an individual, wishes the Council to consider a proposed amendment to Regulation G.35.h as follows:

Dogs may only wear a slip chain, a half-check collar or a smooth collar when in the ring.

Rationale

The proposal is made in view of the Kennel Club’s stance on canine welfare. ‘Check chains/slip collars’ have been used extensively to train dogs where the collar tightens and releases around the dogs neck. The principle behind the collar is to deter, deflect or correct. 

Mr Fernandez wishes the Council to note that it has been well documented that the use of check chains can cause a great deal of physical pain and damage to the dogs spine, neck and psychological welfare, and that every effort should be made to utilise reinforcement based methodologies.

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* 4.
Proposed amendments to Regulations G(A)10.b and G(A)10.b - Stay times  Mr S Rutter

Mr Rutter wishes to propose the following amendments to G Regulations: 

Regulation G(A)10.b Class B TO:
(4)    Sit 2 minutes, handler out of in sight.     20 points
(5)    Down 5 4 minutes, handler out of sight. 30 points

Regulation G(A)11.d. Class C
TO:
(4)    Sit 2 minutes, handler out of sight.                 20 points
(5)    Down 10 5 minutes, Handler out of sight.        50 points
(Deletions struck through. Insertions in red.)

Rationale

Whilst stays are, and should remain, an integral part of Obedience tests, the feeling amongst competitors is that there needs to be a ‘bringing up to date’ of the length of the stay exercises in Classes B and C (including Championship Class C). There is no necessity for a stay to be longer than five minutes. Teaching a dog to do a 10 minute down stay just because it is possible to do so is a pointless exercise. Information collated from judges and from observation at over 30 shows across the last 2 years indicates that continuing beyond 5 minutes does not serve to demonstrate a dog’s ability. The majority of dogs which break, do so within the first 2 minutes or on return, as indicated by the following statistics:

‘C’ DOWN STAY: 
0 - 2 minutes                85%
2 - 3 minutes                7% 
3 - 4 Minutes                3% 
4 - 5 minutes                3%
6 minutes - on return     2% 


By implementing these changes, the graduation between classes would be maintained. 

Mr Rutter is of the view that there is widespread and overwhelming support within the obedience community for change, and although the specific stay times contained in the proposal are open to discussion, he does not consider that leaving them unchanged is an option.

T