The Singapore Kennel Club runs Singapore’s own obedience trial ladder: Pre-Novice, Novice, Intermediate, and Open, plus a separately-run Utility Trial. This guide walks through what each level actually asks of a dog and handler, based on SKC’s own 2017 rulebook, so you know exactly what you’re training toward, not a secondhand description of it.
PetCoach’s own obedience course is built around this exact ruleset. Our program trains toward SKC’s competition standard from day one, so graduates who want to compete are already prepared to enter, not relearning the rules after the fact. Here’s Storm, one of PetCoach’s dogs, working through heel and recall in training:
If you’re just starting out, welcome. Singapore’s obedience competition scene is still small, and it’s easy to find conflicting or half-explained information about what the different classes involve. This guide sets that out plainly, level by level.
SKC’s rules are one obedience system worth knowing alongside AKC’s Novice, Open, and Utility system, FCI’s Class 1/2/3 system, the UK Kennel Club’s own regulations, and ANKC’s five-class ladder. For training and competing here in Singapore, SKC’s is the one that actually applies. Singapore’s club-level competitions, run through PETAS/DTA, follow exercise lists and points that match this rulebook closely.
Want to read the source yourself? Download SKC’s official rulebook (PDF).
The Title Ladder
SKC runs four “Obedience Classes”: Pre-Novice, Novice, Intermediate, and Open. Utility sits above them as a separately-run Utility Trial, the top rung of the same five-level progression.
- Novice earns NOD (Novice Obedience Dog).
- Intermediate earns IOD (Intermediate Obedience Dog).
- Open earns ODX (Obedience Dog Excellent) for a pass, or OCH (Obedience Champion) for a class win.
- The Utility Trial earns UD (Utility Dog) for a pass, or GOC (Grand Obedience Champion) for a win.
- Pre-Novice earns a certificate of passing, without its own named title.
If you’ve come across AKC or ANKC content before, SKC’s titles will look unfamiliar. That’s expected, not a mix-up on your part. SKC built its own naming system for its own trials, and it’s the one to learn if you’re training toward SKC or PETAS/DTA competitions here.
Pre-Novice: 100 Points
- Heel on Lead (45): dog and handler move as a team on a loose lead.
- Stand Stay (10): the dog holds a stand on lead while the judge circles at about a metre away, without touching the dog.
- Recall (25): the dog is left sitting off lead about 12 metres away, then called in.
- Sit Stay (10) and Down Stay (10): both group exercises, handlers walking about 10 metres away and back.
Qualifying score: 75 out of 100. Pre-Novice is entirely about a dog and handler working as a team on lead, the direct equivalent of what a well-run functional obedience program already covers, see PetCoach’s own sit, down, and stand training, just held to a stricter, judged standard.
Novice: 100 Points
- Heel Free (45): the same pattern as Pre-Novice’s Heel on Lead, now off lead. That’s the one change between the two exercises.
- Stand for Examination (10): off lead, with the judge running a single light hand down the dog’s back.
- Recall (25): from 15 metres, off lead.
- Sit Stay (10, 1 minute) and Down Stay (10, 3 minutes): both group exercises, longer than Pre-Novice’s.
Qualifying score: 80 out of 100, still on the same 100-point scale as Pre-Novice. Going off lead and holding stays a little longer is the whole step up at this level.
Intermediate: 200 Points
- Heel Free (45): same as Novice’s.
- Stand for Temperament Test (15): off lead, with the judge now touching the dog’s head, body, and hindquarters, full contact.
- Drop on Recall (30): the dog is dropped mid-approach on command, then recalled again.
- Retrieve on Flat (30): a dumbbell retrieve.
- Broad Jump or Distance Control (30): Distance Control is available as a substitute only for dogs unfit to jump, with a veterinary certificate.
- Sit Stay (25, 1.5 minutes) and Down Stay (25, 3 minutes): both group exercises, now out of sight of the handler.
Qualifying score: 150 out of 200. The Stand exercise builds in a clear, deliberate way across the first three classes:
- Pre-Novice’s Stand Stay: on lead, the judge circles but never touches the dog.
- Novice’s Stand for Examination: off lead, one light hand down the back.
- Intermediate’s Stand for Temperament Test: off lead, full contact across the head, body, and hindquarters, genuinely testing how the dog handles being touched, not just whether it holds position.
Broad Jump belongs here, at Intermediate. It doesn’t appear again at Open.
Open: 200 Points
- Heel Work (45): includes moving into sit, stand, and down while the handler keeps walking, worked into the heeling exercise itself.
- Distance Control (25): the dog holds position and changes on a distance cue.
- Send Away (25): the dog is sent to a marked area and stops there on its own.
- Retrieve over High Jump or Directed Retrieve (30): the second option is a substitute, again for medically unfit dogs only.
- Scent Discrimination (35): picking the handler’s own scented article out of a group.
- Sit Stay (20, 3 minutes) and Down Stay (20, 5 minutes): group exercises, out of sight.
Qualifying score: 160 out of 200. Distance Control and Send Away are two separate, mandatory exercises at this level.
The Utility Trial: 200 Points
A separately-run trial, open to dogs that have already earned their Novice title.
- Seek Back Lost Article (45): an article is dropped mid-heel-pattern, found and retrieved after the handler walks well past it.
- Directed Retrieve (30).
- Scent Discrimination (40).
- Directed Jumping (40): the judge, not the handler, chooses which jump the dog takes.
- Signal Exercise (45): heeling and position changes directed entirely by hand signal, no verbal cues.
Qualifying score: 160, across just 5 exercises, tighter than Open’s 7. If two dogs tie, placing comes down to their Seek Back and Directed Jumping scores.
How Scoring and Qualifying Works
A pass needs two things at once: more than 50 percent of the points on every individual exercise, and the class’s overall qualifying score. Miss either one and the run doesn’t qualify, even if everything else looked strong.
Deductions fall into three bands:
- Minor: up to 20 percent of an exercise’s points.
- Substantial: 20 to 50 percent.
- Zero: the exercise’s core ask wasn’t met, and the dog can’t pass the trial.
SKC also runs an Elimination System that AKC, FCI, Crufts, and ANKC don’t have. Trial organizers can choose to remove a dog from the rest of the trial entirely after a single zero score on any one exercise, rather than letting the dog continue and simply fail that exercise.
Every SKC stay through Open is a group exercise, dogs held in a line together, not worked individually the way ANKC’s CCD and Novice stays are.
SKC’s Role in Singapore
SKC is Singapore’s national kennel club, affiliated with FCI and The Kennel Club (London), and this rulebook is its own governing document for Obedience and Utility Trials.
Singapore’s club-level obedience competitions, run through PETAS/DTA, follow exercise lists and points that match this rulebook closely:
- Pre-Novice matches exactly, same five exercises, same 100-point split.
- Novice matches exactly, same points, same stay durations.
- Intermediate matches exactly, down to the same Broad Jump or Distance Control pairing.
- Open matches closely, the same seven-exercise shape, with two line items a few points apart.
This is SKC’s own ruleset in practice, not a separate system. SKC’s own trial calendar isn’t very active right now, so day to day, you’ll see this ruleset most often through PETAS/DTA-run competitions. PetCoach’s own training program is built toward it, from Basics 1 through the Mock Trial stage.
How SKC Compares
SKC shares the same broad shape as AKC, FCI, and Crufts, several classes building toward more precision and distance, but the details diverge in ways worth knowing before assuming any one system’s rules carry over to another.
- Class structure: 4 Obedience Classes plus a separately-run Utility Trial, 5 levels total, closest in count to ANKC’s 5, though ANKC calls all 5 “classes.”
- Point scale: Pre-Novice and Novice both sit at 100 points, Intermediate/Open/Utility all at 200. ANKC jumps to 200 starting at Novice itself.
- Group vs. individual stays: every SKC stay through Open is a group exercise. ANKC’s CCD and Novice stays are individual.
- Elimination System: SKC can remove a dog from the rest of the trial after one zero score, a mechanic none of AKC, FCI, Crufts, or ANKC has.
- Titles: NOD, IOD, ODX, OCH, UD, GOC, a naming system that’s entirely SKC’s own.
FAQ
Is SKC the Same as PETAS/DTA?
Yes, in substance. Exercise lists and points match closely across Pre-Novice through Open, covered above.
Do I Need SKC Membership to Compete?
No. SKC’s rules allow both members and non-members to enter, with a different fee structure for each.
How Does Utility Differ From Open?
Open still allows verbal commands throughout. Utility replaces that with scent work and a Signal Exercise directed entirely by hand signal, no verbal cues at all, a meaningfully different skill set, not just a harder version of Open.
What Should I Train Toward First?
Pre-Novice. It’s the entry point for SKC-rules competition in Singapore, and it lines up directly with what PetCoach’s own Basics program builds toward.
Curious what obedience training looks like for your own dog, competition or not? Talk to PetCoach’s team about a plan built around what your dog actually needs.
