The AKC Novice and Open Stay Exercises Should Stay

There is an ill-advised move afoot to remove the Long Sit and Long Down from the Novice and Open classes in AKC Obedience. The new proposed replacement exercises have a number of problems. 1. The new Control exercise will make the Utility Signals exercise more difficult since the new Control exercise will include a different order of signals than the Utility signals, and the "stand" signal will be from a distance. 2. The new Stay/Get Your Leash exercise will add time to judging in Open. 3. The proposed back-to-back Sit and Down Stay exercise in Novice will make it more likely that Novice dogs will break their stays because they will have another dog behind them in two lines of dogs. 4. The traditional Stays are used frequently in real life. For example, field dogs must "honor" other dogs while those dogs retrieve birds. 5. Judges' education (both the seminars that are required every three years), as well as education of new judges, should include ways to keep dogs in a stay line from breaking their stays. 6. Clubs and judges who are not reporting these incidents should, if reported to the AKC, be sanctioned in some way, in order to assure that true incidents are dealt with by the clubs and the judges who are responsible for maintaining control of their rings. While we would prefer the Stays to stay as-is, we do realize that there are legitimate concerns, especially for the smaller dogs. Therefore, if the Board sees fit to make changes despite this petition, then we feel that further discussion by the fancy should be considered before finalizing what, in our opinion, are changes that will further damage the sport of Obedience and reduce participation in the sport.