March Training Assignment....CGC Exercises

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

 

 

The Canine Good Citizen (CGC) program, established in 1989, is an American Kennel Club program to promote responsible dog ownership and to encourage the training of well-mannered dogs. A dog and handler team must take a short behavioral evaluation of less than half an hour; dogs who pass the evaluation earn the Canine Good Citizen certificate, which many people represent after the dog's name, abbreviating it as CGC; for example, "Fido, CGC".

For our March training assignment we thought it would be a great idea for "our Doodle trainers" to select items from the CGC evaluation criteria.  Many of us are already working towards acquiring a CGC certification, so it seems to make sense that we would want our assignment to be in line with our goals.  Nancy posted the CGC objectives in an earlier discussion, and I've restated them here.  You may want to select a few "challenges" from this list to work towards during the month of March. Let us know what you'll be concentrating on, and as always please share your progress throughout the month.

 

The evaluation consists of ten objectives. All items must be completed satisfactorily or the team fails. Test items include:

• Accepting a friendly stranger.
• Sitting politely for petting.
• Allowing basic grooming procedures.
• Walking on a loose lead.
• Walking through a crowd.
• Sitting and lying down on command and staying in place.
• Coming when called.
• Reacting appropriately to another dog.
• Reacting appropriately to distractions.
• Calmly enduring supervised separation from the owner.

Evaluators sometimes combine elements during the actual test.

If all ten objectives are met, the handler can apply for a certificate and special dog tag from the AKC stating that the dog has earned the CGC.

Dogs do not have to be registered with the AKC to earn a CGC, nor do they have to be purebred or, in fact, registered with any canine organization. The goal is to promote good citizenship for all dogs.

Since its inception, the CGC program has become the model for similar programs around the world, is the backbone of other exams, such as those given for therapy dogs, and is a good starting point for more advanced dog training.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I'm so lucky to have him, Laurie.  I wish I could clone him for you.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Peri is great with everything except walking through a crowd. We are doing the home depot and petsmart thing this weekend Jane!  I think it is hard for doods with especially bubbly personalities.  I think Murph and Peri would be gaga for each other :)

[Adina P]

Great news Jane!  I need a training helper to arrange such things for me so bad.  I post on FB all the time asking for friends to volunteer to meet me with their dogs (so I can work Boca near them).  It's like pulling teeth to get help...nobody really 'gets' why I'm begging for this help I guess or what the big deal is.  They probably wonder..."Why is she training her dog all the time?"  or "Wasn't she training her dog this summer? Aren't they done?" LOL

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Oh Adina....I so wish I lived right around the block from you.  We would have the best trained Doodles!  I'd get DH to babysit (he's really good at it), and you and I would just train like crazy!  How fun would that be....

[Adina P]

LOTS of fun!  You could live on the other end of town (10 min away) and I'd still join you!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We have the same problem concerning our door or the 3 minute stay away from us.  We have the neighbor kids who are eager to help but I don't know if they know how long 3 minutes is, so I have only left the 'boys' with them for about 40 seconds.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I haven't done this yet but I am going to by some namby pamby comb or brush that has nothing to do with grooming (as far as my dogs are concerned) and give them a treat when I pull it out.  I just want them to get a better attitude for grooming as far as the test is concerned.  They don't like being groomed, behave perfectly fine for the groomer.  My DH and I have our own method for grooming them so I don't feel this in any way detracts from the point of the good citizen requirement.  In real life what stranger is going to come up with a brush anyway?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We are going to practice walking through a crowd on Saturday.  Our local pet adoption center is having a fund raiser walk around the lake at our park.  This is where Ned and I met Clancy last year so we are really excited to take him back. This will be a good practice for them formally.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

HELP:

Yesterday Peri had the walk from hell.  Sorry for the language, but really.  DH and I took the dogs (I handle Peri always) on a walk in the beautiful sunny weather.  The first .75 mile was awful. Literally, I think she had regressed.  I had treats and was using all the "heel" techniques (which I thought she was really getting the hang of!).  She was terrible. I think it took us 30 minutes to not even go a mile.  However, she sat everytime a dog passed and stayed focused on me.  She was almost perfect.  At LEAST 12 dogs passed us (we walk on a pedestrian greenway).

The 2nd half of the walk, after we turned around to return home, Peri was PERFECT.  What in the world? Seriously, we turned around and she heeled 99% of the way back.  Looking at me, smiling, etc...

What is that about?  She is going to fail CGC because of walking and nothing else.

[Adina P]

How exactly was she terrible?  Was her heel bad or was she straining at the end of the leash?  Remember the CGC does NOT require heeling.  So if she walks a foot ahead or behind it won't matter.  What they want to see is you're not being pulled around, she's not acting crazy, and you work together.  So you can walk and talk to her every single step you take, make kissy sounds, clap your hands or thigh, encourage, etc. 

 

As far as 'regression' -- sometimes dogs just have off days for whatever reason.  The important thing is how YOU responded and that you were consistent and given that it took you 30 minutes to get anywhere, it sounds like you implemented things consistently and didn't just walk regardless of her response to your commands. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Attending the shelter's annual walk around the lake fund raiser allowed us to really work on walking through crowds, meeting strangers, and while I registered - a stranger held Ned. I was in sight sort of but with hundreds of people there, it was pretty much like I was not. So we can check that off our list except we do need to make sure we practice the time lengths.  Ned doesn't like some boxers.  He reacted to one at the park recently and yesterday also.  He had a female boxer in his class and he saw a second boxer yesterday that he was fine with.  I am wondering if perhaps the two he didn't like were  intact males perhaps???

PS there was another horse there - miniature.  Our guys were fine with it.  I am glad they met one in class as a distraction.

[Jennifer and Jack]

Good Luck to all of you guys that are going to be taking your dog for the CGC test. Remember if you stay calm, the dog will stay calm. Deep Breathes.. Good Luck!!!