Caden Foley is really into dogs, particularly Brittany spaniels.
Now a junior at Sweet Home High School, he’s been working with Brittanies since he was in the third grade, focusing on obedience training.
That’s why it was a big deal for him to participate Dec. 13-14 in the American Kennel Club’s Obedience Classic. And then he came away as a top placer in the event, which brought together 257 of the top dogs in the country and internationally. Caden and his dog Luke were among 107 competing teams in the Preferred Novice and Novice classes.
They won the Preferred Novice class, and because Caden had the highest score in Preferred classes, he won the Junior Showcase High in Trial was third in the Preferred Novice category. More on that shortly.
Caden, 16, said he got Luke as a rescue through his 4-H leader at the time.
“I got my dog my third grade year and then worked him to be able to show him for the first time at the fair in fourth grade,” he said, “which was a 4-H show, so we kind of did everything. It was showmanship, rally, obedience.”
For the uninitiated, obedience competition is formal, precise and silent, with one command per action and known routines. In rally, handlers can talk and use hand signals as they work their dogs through a course directed by signs. Showmanship focuses on handlers’ skills in presenting their dogs as perfectly groomed, posed, and obedient.
Caden showed in Preferred Novice Obedience at both the Junior Showcase and the Obedience Classic, which were part of the overall five-day AKC National Championships, televised nationally, in Orlando, the culmination of the dog show year.
To qualify for nationals, Caden said he had to either place and title three times in at least two qualifying shows or win a preferred high end trial.
“I did both,” he noted.
When he and his mom, Andi Foley, a teacher at Sweet Home High School, arrived in Orlando, they realized that he had actually qualified for two competitions, the National Obedience Classic, which is what they thought they were there for, and also for the Junior Showcase. The latter was a special event for young handlers (under 18) to compete in AKC Obedience and Rally, which focuses on the junior’s skill in handling their dog, not just the dog’s performance.
“Basically, it’s just you and the judge in the ring,” Caden said. “The judge basically tells you what to do, they walk you through it ahead of time. It’s a heeling pattern.”
He and the dog will perform a couple of figure-eight patterns, then will demonstrate sitting, standing and staying, and response skills.
His mother said the preferred classes “are kind of a step between each of the regular Obedience classes” which prepare competitors to move up to levels for more experienced competitors.
Caden and his twin sisters, Devyn and Eryn, both eighth-graders, are second-generation 4-H canine competitors, following in their mom’s footsteps.
“She was a leader-slash-judge when I was born, so I got to tag along to all the dog shows,” Caden said.
Andi Foley got involved in 4-H canine competition when she was a youngster in Corbett.
“My mom is allergic to dogs, so when I grew up my 4-H dog was a toy poodle,” she said. “Then we got a bichon frisé when I was a sophomore in high school, so I showed both of the little puff balls.”
Caden and his sisters got involved in 4-H and then, when he entered Sweet Home High School, in the newly established FFA program there.
finished with the top score in that competition.
He is president of the Critters and Clovers 4-H club based at Holley School, and has been a county and state ambassador in the program, including representing Linn County at the 2025 national 4-H Congress in Atlanta, Ga., discovering in the process of applying to go to the six-day leadership conference that his reputation preceded him – sort of.
His mom related how Caden was being interviewed as a prospect for the Atlanta trip “and he was saying, ‘Well, I was kind of born into it. I would go with my mom to judge,’ and the woman who was interviewing him was like, ‘You’re Baby Caden!’ She was from Molalla so she would not know him any other way.”
Luke, Caden’s show dog, is 9 now and he’s half blind, but he can still compete, as the pair demonstrated in Orlando. The Foleys have two other Brittanys and Caden plans to stay involved in AKC events, he said.
He and his sisters have been able to show bulldogs for a local breeder, which gives them and the dogs extra opportunities for experience in the ring.
“It tends to be a female-dominated sport, but there’s a lot of male judges and so some dogs shy away from male judges,” Andi said. “So they like having Caden around because he can judge for them in practice, that kind of stuff.”
Caden says he plans to become a judge when he turns 18 “and I can’t show juniors any more, because it’s not that hard to get your juniors judge’s license,” adding that juniors judges are in short supply.
He said that “I will happily get my judge’s license to go judge.”
He said he may eventually get into breeding show dogs, but more immediately he plans to focus on judging performance events.
He’s also active in FFA, in which he shows rabbits and competes in food science events, while serving as the high school chapter treasurer.
“I get the fun job of managing all the money.
“Thanks to FFA, I’m currently on the food science track, because I also have connections at the department at OSU.”
The Orlando experience was affirming, Caden said.
“I learned a lot at the show,” he said, noting that the show sponsors Royal Canin and Eukanuba “do a really good job of also trying to educate people, not only breeders and handlers and owners, but the general public.”
“One of the goals of the AKC, as the nonprofit for dogs in America, is to make sure the general public is educated on dogs. And so with the stuff I learned from this show, I definitely am going to bring that back to my club and my community and see what ways we can improve and spread that around.”