In late of October of 1992, Nancy Ferringer and Barbara Dubinett met in Clarion County Park to train their dogs, Turbo and Ashley. Knowing that the weather would not be conducive to outdoor training, Nancy and Barbara made arrangements to rent the indoor building at the park on an hourly basis. Training took place every Monday at 7:00 PM. Two more members joined these two intrepid dog trainers.

In December of 1992, the four decided to officially form an obedience club.  The first meeting was held in January of 1993 and Clarion Canine Obedience Club was born!  Training continued every Monday night.  It was decided to have club meetings the first Monday of each month.  The financial situation forced these die-hards to hold their meetings at the "posh" local Citgo Station for about nine months.  Flyers and letters inviting interested people to join the club were sent out. Gradually new members came aboard and the club grew.  In February 1994, the club gave its first training class to the public.

From this humble beginning, the club has been true to its purpose: to promote obedience training for all dogs and responsible dog ownership.

The club has grown to over 80 members from 10 counties who share a love of dogs and for training with their dogs.  Although the intent of the club is to assist members in preparing their dogs for competition in the obedience ring at AKC events, the club welcomes members whose only desire is to enhance their companion's behavior.

In 1997, the club applied for and was granted AKC accreditation as an "OB" club. After fulfilling the requirements for OB, including holding obedience matches, the club was granted advancement to "OA" status in August 2000.  Plan OA matches help club members, exhibitors and their dogs gain the experience needed for holding and participating in licensed obedience trials where dogs can earn AKC obedience titles.  CCOC held two OA matches and permission was granted to apply for full sanctioning.  A presentation for sanctioning was presented to the AKC in June 2002. The AKC approved the application on July 22, 2002, and CCOC is now eligible to hold licensed obedience trials.

As a public service, our trainer/dog teams can often be seen in the tri-county area doing demonstrations on dog safety at schools, obedience and dog square dancing exhibitions at parades and fairs, as well as therapy visits to nursing homes. Just look for the group wearing their CCOC gold t-shirts with the black logo - or their black sweatshirts with the gold logo!

Among the accomplishments of the membership are well over 400 titles including Canine Good Citizenship, Therapy Dog International, Novice, Open and Utility Obedience degrees, Rally Novice, Advanced and Excellent degrees, Field Trials, Agility, Tracking, Herding, and Conformation Championships.  Even so, the most identifying characteristics of the Clarion Canine Obedience Club's membership will always be their love for their dogs and the desire to share the training that is fundamental to responsible dog ownership.

The club offers year round obedience classes to the public and has over 1,000 graduates from the puppy and beginner classes since 1994. We offer positive training methods, and our instructors have proven their ability in the AKC obedience ring.

All classes and training sessions are held indoors at the CCOC Training Facility near Knox, PA. Click here for directions to the building.

Visitors are welcome to observe our Wednesday evening member-training sessions or our public classes.
 

This site was designed exclusively by CCOC member, Cindy Bonner, and is maintained by CCOC member, Kim Sweitzer.

CCOC extends a special Thank You to Ed Presnall, Pawmark LLC, 

for hosting our site!

Thank you for visiting the CCOC website.