Functional Obedience (FOB)

Our Functional Obedience (FOB) group class is for people looking for just that. Functional control in normal everyday environments and settings. There are three levels. Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Bronze is loose leash walking, down at a distance (off leash, no competing motivators), and recall (off leash, no competing motivators). Silver is loose leash walking (including passing other dogs), emergency down (off leash, at distance, with competing motivators), and an emergency recall (off leash, at distance, with competing motivators), and a long down with distractions. Gold is next level. The entire assessment is off leash. The environment is different every time with the aim to truly challenge the off leash control of the handler. Some of the distractions used are, a playing dog, picnickers, cricket 🏏 game, soccer ⚽️ game, Frisbee, runners 🏃‍♂️, and introduced toys 🧸 🔫 of any description. It's a real test of control! The dogs must perform several pockets of walking next to the handler off leash, several emergency recalls, several emergency downs, and a long down with distractions. It's a very challenging assessment. With all levels, the dogs are also assessed for attitude. Sporty style obedience is not expected. Rather, dogs 🐕 that, when released, are clear they are free and act accordingly. Penalties are given for dogs that are careful, suppressed, or worried about being told to do something. Dogs 🐕 that, upon being released by the handler, erupt into zoomies with complete freedom and gay abandon will be scored well in this area! This class is our foundation class. People often do several terms in the hunt for a Gold patch and complete freedom for the dog. Our good friend Jaquie put this video together for us. It was taken from a "Judgement Day" for one of our Silver/Gold classes run last year. There are no participation awards at Kaizen K9. The handlers need to do the work and reach the standard. It's an admirable goal. Achieve enough discipline so the dog can be afforded freedom in as many settings as possible, safely. The extra difficulty comes with the catch. We don't want suppressed dogs. The dog 🐕 should be open and free to dog 🐕 until otherwise told. And with that beautiful simplicity lies the true difficulty. Be free, but under control. Teaching a dog to not dog is actually far easier. However, it is our point of view that, if the dog 🐕 believes he's not allowed to dog, well, what's the point. "Discipline equals Freedom" Jocko Willink. And every dog 🐕 deserves the freedom to run, sniff, play, and pee on trees 🌳. Every dog deserves the freedom to dog 🐕.