Ohhh, the whining! How much is allowed for CGC?

[ponyfarm]

Max is one year old now. He has taken many, many OB classes, dock diving, agility , etc. Now we are taking a class for the CGC. He is a superstar at all the criteria, EXCEPT of course, the supervised separation.

He doesnt freak out, just whines and stares at the door. Bless his heart! All the other dogs, well, I am not sure they even realize that their owner left or that a different handler is with them. Pretty sure that facet of behavior is bred out of golden-doodles!! (sorry, hope I didnot offend anyone)

I have some ideas to help him, and we are working on it. Not sure if this will be fixed by the test date..two weeks. How much whining is allowed and do they give some extra leeway for german whiners?

Just really looking for some hand-holding here!!

[llombardo]

They are allowed to be vocal, but I don't know how much. My trainer seen how my dog was with me and we decided that it would be much easier if my son did the test with her and she passed with flying colors. I doubt she would have passed that part if it was me leaving the area.

[Sunflowers]

Mine would fail the brushing part

[KZoppa]

we had a whiner in one of our tests that i assisted with. The owner stepped out of the area TOWARDS the door so the dog kind of panicked that he was being left behind. We reversed the positioning so I took the dog out where he couldnt see his owner and the owner stayed in the area. It worked. They passed the test and decided to take the course again to further cement the desired behaviors but work more heavily on the supervised seperation portion. If your evaluator is willing to give it a shot, perhaps the above is a good way to do it.

[KZoppa]

Originally Posted by Sunflowers

Mine would fail the brushing part

I got bit by a dog during the brushing part . He had no business taking the test at all because he was fear aggressive but he was entitled to take the test as it was included in the cost of the class. I just sat on the floor and ignored him and the minute he saw the brush, he went after me. Didn't move fast enough and he caught my wrist.

[lemonadeicedtea]

Originally Posted by KZoppa

we had a whiner in one of our tests that i assisted with. The owner stepped out of the area TOWARDS the door so the dog kind of panicked that he was being left behind. We reversed the positioning so I took the dog out where he couldnt see his owner and the owner stayed in the area. It worked. They passed the test and decided to take the course again to further cement the desired behaviors but work more heavily on the supervised seperation portion. If your evaluator is willing to give it a shot, perhaps the above is a good way to do it.

This was how the supervised separation for our test was structured as well - my pup was led away from me by a friendly stranger. We also practiced it as an extended down-stay, asking the stranger not to interact with him, which worked really well (and wouldn't be a problem in the actual test, as I was told). We started out in very short increments, praised/treated for quiet/calm behavior, and built up to the 3 minutes required for the test.

[KZoppa]

Originally Posted by lemonadeicedtea

This was how the supervised separation for our test was structured as well - my pup was led away from me by a friendly stranger. We also practiced it as an extended down-stay, asking the stranger not to interact with him, which worked really well (and wouldn't be a problem in the actual test, as I was told). We started out in very short increments, praised/treated for quiet/calm behavior, and built up to the 3 minutes required for the test.

yup. The most I was allowed to do was tell the dog they were good and then just stand there calmly. It really helped because the dog realized that he'd see if the owner left and he just sat calmly watching everything else.

[Shaolin]

Finn is a big talker. The trainer we are working with is one of two evaluators for the CGC test and his comment was, as long as Finn doesn't seem stressed out, they usually chalk it up to being talkative. I know we have a choice; we can leave the dog and walk away ourselves, or the handler takes the dog and walks away. I like the handler taking the dog and leaving because, IMHO, the dog figures Well, if mom is giving my leash up and letting me go with them, it must not be that bad. Even the trainer prefers the dog/handler walk away versus the owner leaving the dog.

[Verivus]

I think some whining is allowed. Kaiser would fail this portion of the test, hands-down.

[ponyfarm]

Is having the your dog led away by the friendly stranger an option? Because he would do way better that way. Probably still whine tho!