Canine Good Citizen

[BuddysMom]

When Buddy recovers fully from HW treatment I would like to commence obedince training and eventually try to obtain the Canine Good Citizen certification (I think...)

Has anyone else done this? If so was it a good experience? Was it hard? Are the recommended training methods sound? I have obtained the book "The Canine Good Citizen" by Jack and Wendy Volhard ... it seems pretty good ... also we have a trainer in town with a great rep who can give us a one hour private lesson for only $20 "and I acn teach you an awful lot in an hour" he says over the phone 8) )

I think my plans are on the right track but since I have a little time to think about it, would love to hear thoughts from y'all.

[imported_Kat]

The canine good citizen dog scheme is brilliant and aimed directly at pet owners. Its definitely worthwhile when Buddy recovers from his treatment. :wink:

[kendalyn]

The CGC is basic obedience so it's not that hard depending on the dog and of course depending on the tester. I have seen some dogs that have their CGC that are really not very well behaved. I don't know how they passed.

doberfanatic napisał(a):

the hardest part for us was getting her to ignore other dogs.

Buck could get his right now if he would be quiet around other dogs! That seems to be the hardest part for him as well. :roll:

[rotten_two]

aspen is a cgc dog! i actually have a funny story about his cgc. wanna hear it here it goes. when we adopted aspen he was scared of sirens. anytime he would hear a siren (even on tv) he would bark his fool head off. of course we were working with him on keeping calm and realizing we would not let the fuzz take him :D so we get word of a test and we drive an hour only to discover that the test is being held in a building right next to a fire station. we thought nothing of it until we heard that first siren :o the testing had not started yet so all dogs were ring side practicing. somehow we managed to pick a test that also had mostly small dogs. when aspen barked at the siren it got dead silent and everyone turned to see him. it was a comedy. also we had just taught aspen to shake so he thought if he smacked/shake at everyone he would get a treat haha. he was shaking his little heart out with people! aspen was 5th to be tested and first to pass!

the level of difficulty really depends on the tester -some are just more liberal in their definition of citizenship. do you have a copy of the rules/requirements for reference? if not you can get them from the akc page. good luck i am sure you will have great success.


ps will your private instruction include a distraction dog? if not maybe you could request it since that is one of the cgc tests (reaction to another dog).

oh and in case i haven't said enuff you might look around sometimes breed clubs or trainers hold "practice" tests.

[mouseatthebusstop]

go for it and good luck

[BuddysMom]

Thanks everyone, this is some great advice (and great story about the fire station! lol )

I think Buddy is especially well suited. For one reason among meny, he just calmly looks at other dogs (and cats) when they are going beserk ...

And this morning he would not take his "cookie" until I asked him to sit (I had forgotten and was breaking the routine!) Once I said it, he sat, took the cookie, ran off and gobbled it happily!