Obedience: Precision in Motion

What is UDC obedience?

The United Doberman Club holds obedience trials as part of its mission to preserve and protect the working heritage of the Doberman Pinscher. These trials assess a Doberman's training, discipline, and willingness to work cooperatively with its handler.

Purpose: UDC obedience trials aim to showcase the Doberman's intelligence, trainability, and stable temperament. They demonstrate a dog's ability to behave reliably in various environments and to respond accurately to commands, reflecting credit on the breed's working capabilities.

How they work: Similar to other recognized obedience organizations (like the AKC), UDC obedience trials involve a dog and handler team performing a series of predefined exercises in a ring. These exercises are designed to test a dog's ability to heel on and off-leash, stay in various positions (sit, down, stand) for extended periods, come when called, and retrieve objects. Judges score each exercise based on accuracy, precision, and the dog's attitude and willingness to work.

Titles: Dogs earn "legs" towards titles by achieving qualifying scores in specific classes. As dogs progress through increasingly difficult levels (e.g., Novice, Open, Utility), they can earn titles such as Companion Dog (D-CD), Companion Dog Excellent (D-CDX), and Utility Dog (D-UD), among others.

meet your obedience judges

Lisa Mitchell

AKC Obedience Judge

As a youngster, Lisa Mitchell nourished her interest in animals as a 4H member in rural upstate New York, and enjoyed competing with both her dogs and horses. That interest led to a career as a licensed veterinary technician at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine where she assists with cutting edge research to this day.

She fondly recalls the first AKC obedience trials with her Novice A dog, a Golden Retriever acquired in 1990. Benefiting from her 4H and local training club instruction, they breezed to CD and CDX titles with high scores and numerous placements. Then came the giant leap to UD, a seemingly forbidding challenge – ultimately met through diligent determination and peer support.

Lisa's next UD came with a Bernese Mountain Dog acquired in 1995, and both Goldens and Berners have been her family companions and training partners ever since. In 2015, Lisa acquired a Golden Retriever that would become her first OTCH, UDX, and multiple NOC qualifying dog. In addition to obedience, from when AKC introduced agility and then rally, she and her dogs have been continuous participants and earned numerous advanced titles in those venues too.

As opportunities arose to give back to dogs and the sport, Lisa was pleased to offer her time and knowledge. She devoted many hours through her local obedience club teaching both pet owners and aspirants to competition. She judged dozens and dozens of club fun and sanctioned matches – which ultimately fueled her desire to become an AKC obedience judge. Volunteering in Golden Retriever rescue, her foster home “boot camp” became the destination for Goldens in need of behavioral adjustment prior to placement. One such Golden never left her care, adopted by Lisa and going on to earn a UD and also compete with great success in agility and rally.

Lisa initiated the process to become an AKC obedience judge in 2012. She thoroughly enjoys judging, affording the opportunity to continue contributing as well as becoming more closely acquainted with the great dogs and people involved in the sport. She's humbled by the honor to judge your National Specialty.

UKC Obedience Judge – Senior status

norbert kowall

I have been working with dogs for over 50 years. For the first forty I had and trained Saint Bernards. Back then you could only do Obedience or Breed with them.

Became active in Obedience in 1980 with my second Saint and eventually training more heavily and consistently until my wife (Christine) and I had the first Saint UDX in the country followed up with the second. We competed in the U.S. and Canada (earning two OTCHX’s).

As we got older we downsized to our first Cardigan Welsh Corgi, basically because we wanted to pursue other dog related activities. Since then have branched out the Agility, Breed, Rally, Herding, Nosework, FastCat and continued with Obedience. Venues are AKC, CKC, UKC, WCLR, CDSP and CPE. Chris, unfortunately passed away in 2017 and I continued to compete with Owen (who has since retired - 2021) and am currently working with his great grandnephew and niece Junior & Posey.

Owen retired with 127 titles of which 12 were Championships. Earned his UDX in AKC, CKC and UKC.

Junior is six years old and competes in Agility, Breed, Fast Cat, Nose work, Obedience and Rally. Has earned 150+ titles to date (31 Championships) He has multiple UDX titles in AKC, UKC and a CKC OTCh.

Most important of all, both my Corgi’s are Therapy Dogs. Junior with his THDD (Therapy Dog Distinguished) and Posey with a THDA title,

I have been a UKC Obedience Judge for many years and hold Senior status.

Am still actively competing and my guys are pretty well known in various venues and competitions. Keeping up with different organizations and rules for the variety of events is a challenge, but I am willing to share what I have learned.