The American Kennel Club, Canadian Kennel Club and United Kennel Club are just a few of the organizations that sponsor obedience competition to encourage dog owners to train their dogs to be good citizens in society. There are other Kennel Clubs all around the world, but these are three I can get to without putting my dog on a plane.

The Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America encourages the breeding of multi-faceted dogs with Versatility and Working Dog titles. Versatility Dogs have a Championship, a Novice Draft Dog title and then one of the following titles—Companion Dog (novice obedience), Tracking Dog, Novice Agility, or Junior Herding Dog. The Working Dog has earned the Novice Draft Dog title and two of the following titles—Companion Dog, Tracking Dog or Novice Agility or Novice Agility Jumpers or Junior Herding Dog.

Working at the “Novice” level in obedience is a fundamentally important foundation for any future work in obedience—attentive heeling, a reliable recall, and solid sit and down stays are critical, not only for Open and Utility work, but also for REAL LIFE. Many, many Bernese Mountain Dogs have earned their Companion Dog titles. A web site to list them all would go on for pages and pages. So, since my main interest, and that of my dog, is “What’s next?” I’m only going to provide records here for the higher AKC titles beyond Companion Dog.

Many, many thanks to Alison Jaskiewicz, BMDCA Records Chair, for providing the information found on these pages, and thanks to everyone who wote to me in 1998 when I started this project and provided call names.

Every AKC and BMDCA title completed by a Bernese Mountain Dog is reported in the BMDCA’s magazine, The Alpenhorn, and a myriad of performance event records are maintained by Front and Finish, so check out both of these excellent publications to track your dog’s obedience career from Novice to Obedience Trial Champion!

Link to Berner Firsts maintained by Suzanne Lintzenich