Jet's Furkid Palace: Guess who is officially a Good Citizen?

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Guess who is officially a Good Citizen?

Barbie passed her CGC with flying colours today, along with two other dogs - Poppy (Staffordshire Bull Terrier) and Bowie (Cav King Charles Spaniel x Toy Poodle). An Honorable mention goes to Kumo the Japanese Spitz, who didn't quite pass today , but I'm sure he will next time!

As Barbie and I did all the facets of the test first, Barbie is the first dog in Western Australia to pass the Canine Good Citizen qualification. I expect there will be an article in the Greyhounds As Pets newsletter. One I don't have to write!

We all did our Level 1 and Level 2 courses together and it is amazing seeing what everyone has achieved with their dogs. Poppy is the calmest Staffy I have ever met now - though when we first met her in level 1 class she was the kind of dog who would try and jump up to lick your face. Bowie is a really smart and lovely little fella, and never really seemed to have much trouble with the test requirements (except for supervised separation), and Kumo just needs a bit more doggie confidence. Barbie's weakness is anything that requires her to hold a 'sit' so we had to repeat the 'sit and wait in the doorway' exercise, and the 'sit and accept pats from a friendly stranger'. Something that she was disadvantaged at because she doesn't like to sit (yes, she can do it, but it just takes more effort to hold herself in that position than it does for other dogs)! I was very impressed with her performance with everything else though.

I am really happy with the way she handled the situation (spending all morning, running each of the dogs through the 12 parts of the test, one at a time), and how she chilled out and relaxed on her blankie between exercises. Conserving energy is important!

Anyway a big shout out to Billy's Doggie Daycare for providing the venue and volunteers, to Desma's Dog Training for going the whole way with this CGC thing, and Leslie from Good Manners for being our independent assessor.

Comments (12)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

0 Vote up Vote down

Summer · 735 weeks ago

Congratulations to both of you! I'm sure you're both very excited and proud. It's such a wonderful accomplishment!

Summer

1 reply · active 735 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

GreyhoundsCANsit · 735 weeks ago

I am SO pleased for you guys. Big congratulations:) I know the time and effort you have both put into this and you thoroughly deserve the CGC. I'm very excited!! And being the first dog in WA to get it, well, that sure is icing on the cake, way to go:)

0 Vote up Vote down

Mayli the Labradane · 735 weeks ago

Hi, Jet:

This is fantastic news! Barbie looks awfully proud of herself in the pics featured above. My human, Jeannie, has this irritating habit of quantifying every piece of information she processes. She wants to know how long you worked with Barbie before you were confidant that she could take the exam. Oh, and she wants to know if this was your first time to undertake the test.

This is definitely cause for celebration -- enjoy your victory, ladies! :)

- Mayli the Labradane

1 reply · active 735 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

jetsagenda 82p · 735 weeks ago

hi Mayli

we did 2 x 6 week courses with Desma, and then had to wait a few months to do the exam as two of the dogs in the class were young and we had to wait until they both turned one. It was the first test. There aren't a lot of Delta Society accredited instructors in WA at the moment so organising the test was a bit of a challenge.

0 Vote up Vote down

Winnie · 735 weeks ago

Congratulations! I am really impressed.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm glad you found me on the Saturday blog hop and I look forward to following your blog from now on too.

Love and licks

Winnie

0 Vote up Vote down

Helen, Snoopy& Arrow · 735 weeks ago

Congratulations!!! very well done :) :)

0 Vote up Vote down

Carrie Noar · 735 weeks ago

I never doubted that she would pass with flying colors! Congrats to both of you on a job well done! Barbie, Greyhounds everywhere are saluting you!

0 Vote up Vote down

Honey the Great Dane · 735 weeks ago

Oh CONGRATULATIONS!! What a wonderful achievement!! IMy human thinks it is so wonderful how your human believes in you and does all these training things with you, despite the stupid (wrong!) stereotype about greyhounds!

I did the CGC too - although back in NZ, there were 4 levels: Basic, Bronze, Silver & Gold. Most doggies do the Basic and some get Bronze but not many go on to Silver & Gold, which have more advanced exercises like Heeling Offleash and Instant Drop when running, Retrieving a lost article and sending to Bed. I am the first Great Dane in NZ to get the Gold CGC! :-)

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

1 reply · active 735 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

jetsagenda 82p · 735 weeks ago

wow! instant drop while running must be hard!

it sounds like NZ has a lot more different things that you can do with your doggie with levels of CGC training and things like Rally-O.

we did join an agility club but they had a huge beginners class and there was a lot of standing around doing nothing waiting for our turn... and class went to really late! :P I think we might look around for different clubs where we can do our own thing a bit more rather than having to have everything supervised by the instructor all the time.