Going for CGC/TDI... advice and a few small ???s

[VaBeachFamily]

Oh, I could only imagine if a dog decided to eat a small animal. Cullen has been out to help the principal of the local elementary school at herding the geese back towards the lake to keep the feces count down on the actual school grounds. Though I always pegged him for a small animal bandit, he actually seems to get the natural concept. That is what his parents do " for a living" so, I don't see why he couldn't.

I checked the AKC site, looks like we will just wait, nothing local for any of the titles except for the same day as our CGC/TDI, so we will have to wait for a calendar update after November! Wish us luck on the 20th! I am just planning on doing some frisbee time before we leave, he will be nice and tired and I run less risk of him acting out during his heeling time. We have been working on it a lot at home and he is doing well, just figure with a bunch of people and dogs around that he isn't familiar with, it might be a different story. I actually have my son staying at home with my husband that day so he doesn't have that distraction!

[selzer]

Good luck on the 20th, you should do fine.

[VaBeachFamily]

Thank you! Will post in the brag section that evening if we pass! I have faith in him, but I also will not be upset with him if he doesn't do well in the particular setting. Not sure I would go for Therapy again if he doesn't do well, but would def. try for CGC again.

[VaBeachFamily]

OK, so after talking to ScarlettsMom ( whom did the test with the same person as I will be) I learned that they do everything kind in a group setting... each dog performs each activity, then each dog does the next, etc. They are in a small area, and you are kinda lined up around other dogs the whole time...

For all of you others who have done this, is this normal? When I have seen videos of others getting their CGC/TDI, it seems they are judged ONE person/dog at a time through the entire round of activities, and not crowded by everyone else testing. Cullen works great with me, but I am unsure that I want to test in this type of setting if it is avoidable.

[Whiteshepherds]

We were tested one dog at the time. (CGC) There was one other dog and handler in the ring because we had to approach, stop, shake hands and talk for a minute as part of the test. Dogs had to be kept on our left side for this part of the test. That was a close to doing a formal heel as it got.

I got the impression they weren't all that interested in how pretty the sits, down etc. were, they just wanted to see that you had the dog under control and that it wasn't aggressive towards other dogs or humans.

[mycobraracr]

When I did the CGC everyone doing it was in a line and they took one dog at a time. When the dogs went to the 3 minute seperation the evaluator started the next dog. So each dog had its chance to go through the exercises on it's own.

[VaBeachFamily]

That is how I assumed it would be, but apparently it's not that way with this tester. Cullen is NOT dog aggressive, but if dogs are barking and acting like... well... dogs, he won't give me his all. I know it doesn't have to be completely formal obedience, but I still don't want him distracted when it's not called for! Thanks everyone, I think we are going to get with a friend that does them locally for CGC and hold off on Therapy

[Blanketback]

This is just something I figured out in the past month, but maybe it will help you. I took my puppy into the dog park to get him used to being around other dogs for this specific reason. I found that, while he enjoys running around with them, he much prefers to play frisbee with me. So what I'm doing is using this to my advantage, and I'm going to wean him from the frisbee to something smaller, with the eventual goal being that he'll totally ignore other dogs when he sees this object. That's my theory, anyway, lol. It just might work!

[selzer]

I have done it both ways, we do some of the items kind of in a line, meet and greet, meet and greet with petting, grooming and handling, visual and audio distractions, then we all go to the side wile the dog does the loose lead walking, walking through the crowd, sit, down, stay, recall.

[llombardo]

Originally Posted by mycobraracr

When I did the CGC everyone doing it was in a line and they took one dog at a time. When the dogs went to the 3 minute seperation the evaluator started the next dog. So each dog had its chance to go through the exercises on it's own.

This is nice. All of the dogs did this exercise together both times. They also did the jogging and loud noises with all of them together too. I prayed all of the dogs would behave