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Is this a normal CGC practice?

2K views 18 replies 10 participants last post by  llombardo 
#1 ·
Gypsy and I went to the local kennel club's CGC practice session. The way it was advertised, I thought it was a runthrough of the CGC test so that you could see what it would be like. But, it didn't go the way I expected. There were about 20 dogs there in a pavilion, and most of the session was sitting or walking around the room aimlessly saying hi to other owners and their dogs. The evaluator would ask for a sit or a down every once in a while but didn't really explain what we were supposed to be doing. A lot of tense greeting behavior occurred. I was confused because I thought for the greeting part you are supposed to have your dog in a sit and have them not pull towards the other dog, but that is what most people were doing- lots of snout to snout sniffing. Gypsy did absolutely fine but this is not how I was told by our behaviorist to allow her to interact with other dogs on a walk since she can get reactive.

The other portions of the test did not get much attention. The evaluator would say "Okay, I'm going to drop a chair on the floor now to make a big noise" and do so. No big deal. When it got time for the handling part, Gypsy was avoidant because the past week she had a bad experience at the vet. She is usually friendly towards strangers but she can tell if someone wants to pet her versus check her ears out. We can work on this and I'm aware that it's my responsibility to fix it. However, when she shied away the evaluator said "Don't let her do that," and drug her towards herself by the collar. I felt this was incredibly inappropriate.

So I guess I'm wondering whether I should go back to this group for the evaluation because it seemed kind of chaotic to me. Is this normal for a CGC practice? Do they do the test in a big group like this? I assumed they tested the dogs one at a time, but what do I know? If this doesn't sound like a good environment to take the test, how would you recommend finding a better one?
 
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#2 ·
Not normal.

Dogs should never be meeting in a class session, trainers/evaluators should not be pulling around dogs by their collar or forcing interaction. Period.

Find a new place is my recommendation! Or set it up on your own with friends/family that your dog hasn't met! :)
 
#3 ·
I would find a class that prepares you for the CGC.. But I do know if a dog shows agression and shyness/fear they will fail.

I just did the CGC with my young dog.. And for the most part it's you and the instructor during the testing... Other than when they bring in another dog handler team for you to approach and greet and then the group of a few people milling around for you to walk through..

Have you looked at the test to see what's all involved??
 
#9 ·
Have you looked at the test to see what's all involved??
I've read quite a bit about it, but I thought I would ask the opinion of the masses because sometimes what you read about in the "official" literature isn't what actually goes down in real life.

If I can get my dog back to the way she was with handling when I first adopted her, we will pass. She used to be very good with examinations, but when she got an ear infection and people kept accidentally causing her pain, that went out the window. I don't consider her shy around people, she is just very plainly saying "Please don't touch my ears. I don't like it." As for the "reaction to another dog" part, she is trained to ignore other dogs, not say hello to them.
 
#4 ·
CGC is a joke for just this reason. Ive seen it done this way in other places. There are a ton of dogs out there with it that have no business having one. You see clubs that do this kind of thing for dogs in protection sports too and put titles on dogs that have no business having them but it is rampant with CGC.
 
#5 ·
My pre-agility course actually did a bit of prep for the CGC along with the other things we learned. There are only 4 dogs in the class (3 showing up most of time) so we used each other for the greeting part. The people greeted each other with their dog at their side .. not the dogs meeting. Then we all sat and the instructor came up, asked to greet our dog, stroked it and asked if they could check the paws and ears. She then rounded up a couple of volunteers and we did the out of sight wait, but only for a minute, not three.
 
#7 ·
Nose to nose stuff never worked for me. I tried to adopt a foster a Boxer form a High Kill shelter and they wanted to meet Gunther and had him do the nose to nose thing!

He never made a sound but he scared the crap out of them with his "attitude to that"! I called Boxer rescue and they got him out.

But yeah, you need to find another program!
 
#14 ·
I've read quite a bit about it, but I thought I would ask the opinion of the masses because sometimes what you read about in the "official" literature isn't what actually goes down in real life.

If I can get my dog back to the way she was with handling when I first adopted her, we will pass. She used to be very good with examinations, but when she got an ear infection and people kept accidentally causing her pain, that went out the window. I don't consider her shy around people, she is just very plainly saying "Please don't touch my ears. I don't like it." As for the "reaction to another dog" part, she is trained to ignore other dogs, not say hello to them.
I went in blind doing ours.. Figured it would be something fun.. My dogs have a lot of training on them so for the most part it was easy..

A lot will depend on the evaluator.. Mine was very thorough.. Even with the hands on part..

On the greeting of a stranger and there dog.... The dogs do not go nose to nose.. and you can keep a little distance..
 
#16 ·
I'm a CGC evaluator and there are a few others in our training club. We always go by the script provided in the booklet so the testing is consistent. And no- there isn't any interaction between the dogs when greeting. The point is that the dog should sit or stand calmly at your side when another person with a leashed dog approaches. The evaluators only touch the dogs as part of the test, there aren't corrections made. We have off leash play time if anyone wants so the dogs can run off a little energy first
 
#19 ·
3 of mine have their CGC's and I'm working on the fourth one(golden puppy) the obedience class I take has three levels and covers everything on the CGC during that time. First class we worked heavily on greeting each other and the dogs ignore each other. I have a golden ,he loves everyone and he is doing well with it.
 
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