easiest dog sport title...

[cmscott]

Assuming you are capable and your dog is capable, what is the easiest title to get? and for that matter - what is the hardest?

I might be indirectly asking which dog sport is easiest or hardest but I'd like to know what people think.

[FG167]

Lure coursing aptitude test title. Your dog either has the instincts and will do it, or they won't

[Liesje]

I agree, the CA or U-CA because there is no training, either they will do it or not. The CAX is not hard but just takes time since you need 12 legs and lure coursing meets rare.

Also I think the CGC (though it's not really a "title") because they are so cheap, widely available, and most dogs can do it with little formal training.

[selzer]

I think a good place to start is a CGC, CGN, or BH. The BH being the most difficult of the three. The CGC is really a certificate program. You take the dog to classes or just sign up for the test. If he passes 10 tests, the dog gets a certificate.

At that point, you probably have a dog that can manage to be trained and trialed for a title.

The easiest title that I have gotten was probably the RN (Rally Novice), though Arwen's CD was really a piece of cake as well, she got her three legs in three shows, and took first each time. I think it depends on the handler which is easier for them to manage.

Rally, the dog and handler have to know more maneuvers an be able to do them in order properly, but it is more relaxed, and will not have the same set of signs any two times in the ring.

The CD is very predictable, but if you are going deaf, then it is next to impossible not to make mistakes.

The ten tests for the CGC

1. Meet and Greet, the evaluator comes up to you and says high. Your dog sits or stands pleasantly and does not try to jump on her or maul her, pass.

2. May I pet your dog? the evaluator comes up, asks if they can pet your dog. You say yes, and she pets the dog usually under the chin, on the chest and up over the head. The dog does not maul her, pass.

3. Appearance and Grooming. the evaluator comes up and touches your dogs ears, both front paws, and runs a hand or brush down the back. You can hold your dog's head so that he does not lick her whole face while she touches the paws. It cannot be a death grip. The dog does not maul the evaluator. Pass.

4. Walking on a loose leash. The instructor calls out to go forward, turn left and right, about turn. The dog does not pull the handler everywhere and the leash manages to be loose. Perfect heal position is not penalized but it is not required. Pass.

5. Sit and Down. The instructor tells you to sit your dog, and without physically putting the dog into position, he sits. the instructor tells you to down your dog, and without body slamming your dog, the dog assumes the down position. Pass.

6. Stay and Recall. From the sit or down position, you tell the dog to stay, and go to the end of a 20 foot lead, turn around and come right back. The dog remains in position. You sit or down the dog, and then go 10 feet, turn and call the dog. The dog comes to you, and you are able to take the dog's collar. Pass.

7. Walking through a crowd. The evaluator asks for the millers to come in and walk around. Usually three or four spectators work fine for this. You take your dog amongst them. The dog can nose them, but cannot growl, maul, or drag you around out there. Pass.

8. Reaction to a distraction. The evaluator has someone slam a door or drop a stainless steel pan. Your dog does not go through the ceiling. The evaluator has someone walk by with a walker, wheel chair, or has some one jog by about 10 feet in front of the dog. The dog does not chase, growl, snap, maul the person. Pass.

9. Meet and greet with dogs. Two handlers with their dogs, or the handler and the evaluator with their dogs, generally walk toward each other with the dogs on their right sides (dogs on the outside). The handler's stop, exchange pleasantries, and walk on. (Good idea to tell your dog to SIT when you stop.) The dog does not cross in front of the handler to meet the other dog, does not bark like a fool, lunge, snap or otherwise act like an idiot. Pass.

10. Supervised Separation: You tell your dog to sit or down, and hand the leash over to a stranger, and then leave the sight of the dog, usually a room, but we have hid behind cars too. They time it and call you back after 3 minutes. Your dog does not have to stay in position, but he cannot whine incessantly and he cannot maul the holder or anyone else. Pass.

The evaluator can fail you at any time if they see it, if your dog does something bad like charge another dog or snap at a person. But it is not considered a fail, just needing more work in an area. So you can take the test as many times as you need to. They will encourage you to continue to work with your dog.

It is a good starting place.

[phgsd]

I think rally is pretty easy...I've seen some pretty sad performances pass, at least at the lower levels. And with Gizmo and Kessy I never took a class or went to a match with them, they'd never even seen a rally sign before our first trial, but entered trials and got loads of titles, all the way up to RL3 (which is like an RE), with lots of placements in big classes. Granted, I did train at home and have done rally before, but I don't think I'd try that with many other sports!
IMO Schutzhund and HGH herding are the some of the most difficult titles. Both are very demanding of both the dog and handler. Kessy's HGH took us 2 years and there is no rushing it, and her Schh1 took us a year and a half of 2-3x weekly training. Also UD is very difficult, there are so many components to perfect.

[Konotashi]

Also, dock diving.

At a flyball tournament there was all kinds of other stuff going on, and someone on my team (she has a lab) took her over to the dock diving and got a title or two over there. She'd never done any kind of training with her, just decided to give it a shot.

[Liesje]

Rally Novice was pretty easy. There was more training up front than CGC, lure coursing, etc but it was easy to find events to enter and the competition itself was not that challenging or nerve wracking.

Flyball also, once you start competing you just rack up points. Pan earned 3/4 of a title just being an alternate on a team for one day. He only ran two heats total and nearly earned a title. However there are a gazillion levels of titles and some dogs have tens of thousands of points and have been competing for a decade.

[GatorDog]

I think the CGC or TT are easy 'titles'. There isn't really up front training and the dog either passes or it doesn't. I have done any lure coursing but that sounds like a similar scenario.

I don't think the BH is really easy at all, especially considering the fact that the entire (very long) routine is (or should be) mostly focused heeling.

[onyx'girl]

CGC & BH are not titles, but a certificate. The BH is only necessary to get past to move on to the actual titles. HIT is a test, not a title.
So for all these 'titles' that are easy, what is the point of saying they are a title if they are so easy to rack up points or whatever? I can see if there are 'legs' to get to a certain level, then a title could be awarded....but getting a title for a dock dive, lure course run, or a flyball run doesn't seem very worthy(unless it is a record breaker!) Not that I'm bashing titles, but I think there should be some merit in awarding them.

[Liesje]

You do have to earn legs. You need 3 qualifying runs for a U-CA, 12 for a U-CAX, 5 jumps for a dock diving division (must be in the same season, the slate is cleared every year), and for flyball you earn points and the title reflects your points. The point is it tells you where the dog is at in training/competition, if you know what's required of the title there's no guessing. Some titles require little training because they test what is in the dog (coursing aptitude, ATTS temperament, for example). It may be easy-peasy for my dog but there are many dogs that will never earn the title even if they trained for years. Whether or not there is merit, I guess that is for the individual to decide. My dogs work their butts off and have been in four totally different types of events in three different cities in one week. The most important thing is that they train hard and play harder. Actually SDA and Schutzhund are the only sports I can think of where you only have to do something *once* to earn a title. In flyball if you run Singles races TEN times (that's ten totally different tournaments, you don't get credits for multiple days the same weekend) all you get is a pin, lol.