CGC Testing--how old was your doodle?

[Teresa and George]

Hi everyone,

How old were your doodles when they took their Canine Good Citizen Test?  Our trainer has scheduled George to test in January at the age of six months.  It seems a little early to me, but I really have no idea.  He's our first puppy--the last dog we had was 10 years old when we got her!  So, any feedback that you all have about this issue will be helpful!

Thanks,

Teresa

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Guinness was 9 months when he got his CGC, which I also thought was a little young, but he did fine.  Murph was more of a challenge and was a bit older.  Both of my guys went through the CGC prep class and we went by the trainer's advice on when they were ready to be tested.  I would definitely go by what your trainer says.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

Cubbie was just over a year when he took his test and he was the only dog out of a group of 5 that passed the test.  If your trainer thinks you and George are ready, then I would go for it.  If you don't pass, it is no big deal.  If you do pass, then great!  If you do pass the test though, make sure to keep up with the training.  I found that Cubbie became more "difficult" at around 1.5-2 years old.  He was a well trained dog that suddenly decided that he didn't want to do anything that he had learned.  We continued with the training and got over that issue.

[Carolyn Shusterman]

Hershey was 17 months old.  I trained her myself and then took her to class to get her to working  off lead with the distraction of the other dogs.  DH was there and said "Hershey won the GOLD easily".

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

JD  may be the oldest CGC recipient here. He was almost 7 years old (6 years, 9 and a half months, to be exact) when he took the test in September 2011. Even though he was very well behaved, I didn't think it was something he could do until Adina kind of dared me into it, lol.

[Patti Livanos]

Mine was over a year old, and probably could have done it sooner, but I wasn't ready...  Your trainer should have a good idea if it's the right time, and you can always test again if George doesn't pass...

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Daisy passed her CGC when she was  8 months, she also passed all the criteria for the Therapy Dog but could not get that because they have to be ONE year old. The testers were so impressed with her. Regrettably we did not go back for that, life changed and we missed the boat.