Daisy passed her CGC test tonight!

The title of the thread says it all -- she passed! I can't really believe it. For so long, I thought she had no chance so I wasn't even thinking about it all that much. But then last week she had to go and do well on everything, raising my hopes just enough to make me nervous for tonight!

I think my nerves hampered her performance in a couple of areas, and it took two tries on the dog to dog part, but we did it! On the first try, I forgot to take my bait bag off, and Daisy saw me hand it to the teacher, which messed her up. I never had her attention as much as I should have. I waited till the very end and then did it with another dog and it all went perfectly that time. I'm so proud of her and so frustrated with myself that I couldn't conquer my nerves more.

She's far from over her dog reactance issues, and a couple of times (between the events only, not during), she went a little nuts and probaby should have been disqualified, IMO, but I'm not going to argue. All the dogs were having problems in different areas that they normally do quite well on, so I think we were all nervous. Poor dogs probably thought we were crazy!

I'll probably start on the Novice Companion Dog classes in the Fall.

:rah: Hooray for Daisy! You must be so proud of her. At what age did you start her formal training, was it one on one, then a class with other dogs? How long did it take her to get to this point? I hope to enroll Dottie in beginning classes soon to start working on her CGC training also, with the ultimate goal of going on to train as a pet therapy dog. I think she has a perfect disposition for this, and nothing seems to get her excited, (except maybe the cat that sits on the wall in the yard taunting her in the morning!)

:rah::rah:
Congratulations to both of you!!!!

Now up to the next one

Marianne,

We did puppy class when she was about 5-6 months old, if I remember correctly. That was about 8 weeks. She was pretty wild in that class. In fact, my husband always cracks up because one of the tasks on the graduation test was to walk by a treat on the floor and say "Leave it" and they ignore it. Not likely with Daisy! In fact, what was so funny was that we were on the sidelines while another dog was being tested, and they put the treat down on the ground to start the test. Daisy, from 20 feet away on the sidelines, started lunging and going crazy to go get the treat!

We then did Obedience I the next Spring, and she started to show more control toward the end of the session (again it was 8 weeks). I worked with her a lot in our backyard on heeling, staying, etc. and then we just finished the Obedience II this Spring. It was a 6 week class with the last week just being the test.

Daisy does have a very excitable personality, so it is tough with her. As the teacher said, "Daisy gets worked up over everything that moves!" She's definitely got a point. So if your dog is not excitable, I bet you will have a much easier time in all the classes. Daisy has a wonderful personality with people and she maybe could with time become calm enough for therapy work, but she is still nutso around other dogs. I think the only reason we were able to get through the parts of the test that involved being around other dogs was because there were only 4 dogs in the class and she got used to being around them. And she did better around some of them than others.

The classes we took were with our local Obedience Training Club. They put on 3 classes a year at all different levels. It has been a big help. The trainers are all into obedience, rally, and/or agility competitions, so they are big-time into dogs, but they understand that most of the people in the class just want a better behaved dog.

Congratulations.. isnt that the greatest feeling !!!! Kosmo has never taken the CGC test but he did take the therapy dog test and passed it.. I remember being elated!

:rah::rah: Congratulations DAISY and Daisy's Mom :rah::rah:

:mexwav::mexwav:

Wahoo! Congratulations to you and Daisy. Job well done!!!

:w**h**: way to go Daisy!! :rah: :rah:

Thanks, everybody! Now if we can just get her to act like a "Good Citizen" when we are out for a walk in the real world!

Thanks Daisy's mom for the great info on Daisy's training classes. I am really looking forward to getting started!!!

That is fabulous! :rah::rah::rah:

Congratulations! :rah:

:rah:Congratulations Daisy!!!!:rah:

Well done Daisy!!!!! I know how anxious you were about this test Daisy's Mom, but your girl sure did you proud!!!!!! Congratulations! :rah: :rah: :rah: