Obedience Havanese are proving themselves quite competitive at obedience trials. Their eagerness to please along with their exceptional athleticism and ease of training make them a superb toy breed to work with in this endeavor. One of the nicest things about training a small dog is it is purely for pleasure. There is really no NEED for them to be obedience trained. After all, if they are naughty you can just pick them up. Instead, the reason to obedience train your Havanese is almost selfish. It is to reap the joy you will get from teamwork with your dog, as well as allowing both of you to enjoy the sheer fun of being together in a competitive venue.   Moose getting ready for class. You can begin training your puppy for obedience from the time they are about 8 weeks old. Many schools offer puppy kindergarten from this age on, and these classes are geared not only to teach the puppy manners but also to teach them to enjoy learning, to have self-confidence, and to have fun! The exercises offered in the Canine Good Citizen program are also a great way to get started. As your training progresses, you may begin working at the higher obedience levels. You will begin with heeling through patterns on lead, doing recalls, and having your dog perform long sits and stays. Slowly you will add in more of the upper level skills as you perfect these. You can move on to heeling off lead, sending your dog over both a high jump and a broad jump, retrieving, replacing voice commands with hand signals and finally, you will add in scent discrimination. Each dog is different. Each learns different parts of obedience training at different times. The trick is to remember you are a team, and to help your partner advance in his training at his own speed while still having fun. An obedience trained dog is the ultimate in canine companions. CH Jolain’s Your Summer Dream, CGC practicing long sits with friends and training partners, Mac and Bonny. AKC Obedience Trials: Only purebred dogs, or those with ILP's are allowed to compete at AKC Trials. Spayed or neutered dogs are allowed. More information is available at the AKC Obedience website   Rally: The newest addition to the obedience world is Rally. This fun, non-regular class has dog & handler competing through a course of 10-20 stations at their own speed. Each station has a sign providing instructions on what skill is to be executed. The team's performance in Rally does not need to be as precise as it does in Obedience. As an added plus the handlers are able to talk to their dogs, as well as use clapping, patting their legs or any type of praise to encourage them through the course. In the past, obedience competitors have relied upon fun matches for ring practice. Now with the advent of Rally, a whole new dimension of having fun while training has been added. You can learn more about this fun new sport at the AKC Rally Website