# CGC for goldens...



## nixietink (Apr 3, 2008)

I am interested to hear this too...Vito will eventually go for his CGC before he is turned in for formal training. Our goal is at a year. Too much to ask?


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## cham (Feb 21, 2008)

Hey FOZ

Eventually, I would like to see both Mitch and Hailey get their CGCs. But Mitch has a long way to go, he is sweet and loving, too loving, and a kangaroo dog. Right now we are working on his behavior at home, jumping and the at somes compulsive licking. 
As far as Hailey is concerned? Even after 3 days in training bootcamp she still pulls on lead, and her stop/sits are not automatic. 
Say what you will about Sue, she sure bred some loving, stubborn Goldens.
BTW did I send you Lucia's K-9 data?

Nancy


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## 3459 (Dec 27, 2007)

Hi, FOZ,

Chessie and I are in the same boat. Chessie turns one next week and is scheduled to take her CGC test the first week of July. My trainer thinks she will pass, but I'm not sure the maturity is there yet. We have managed to get her off the gentle leader, though she would do better with a slip lead than she does with a flat collar. Walking past other dogs without trying to say hello is a challenge, but the kicker for Chessie is sitting still while someone pets her and checks her over. Little Miss Fidget cannot hold her sit for that. :doh: We are really working hard, but I can easily see us having to wait and take more classes.


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## FriendsOfZoe (Feb 15, 2008)

DaMama said:


> We have managed to get her off the gentle leader, though she would do better with a slip lead than she does with a flat collar.


You know, you are allowed to use martingale collars for AKC events now...lupine makes a nice all fabric limited slip martingale that is great not only for added control but for dogs (like goldens) who can "back out" of a flat collar...it's the "combo collar" http://lupinepet.com/dog/lg_dog.php

With a martingale and a little bit of chicken or liver, we could pass. But no treats? That's just not going to happen.:no:


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## Debles (Sep 6, 2007)

Selka passed the CGC test before age 2, he was in advanced obedience classes by that time , used to dogs, people etc, had no problem.

BUT when we took the Delta Society test to be a therapy dog he "failed " because he tried to smell a doll a woman was shaking in front of him, representing a handicapped person who wouldn't know better. She said Selka tried to bite her when grabbing the doll! I knew this was Bull sh*T! Selka would NEVER attempt to bite someone or grab with his teeth, during training. I was so mad I didn't want to retake the test but my friend talked me into it and he passed with flying colors. I am assuming that woman had experienced a dog who grabbed or did bite and was very overly cautious!

Anyway, I think he passed Delta Society after he was two because of that. Sorry for the long diatribe. It still makes me mad. I guess I should "get over it!"


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## mdoats (Jun 7, 2007)

Rookie will be taking his CGC exam in about a month. He'll be 16 months old. He's not 100% there yet, but he's getting pretty close. What I've come to realize is that I need to step up the training. I haven't been spending as much time training as I used to, so I'm committed to spending more time working with Rookie over the next month with at least one good training session every day.

I'm working on weaning him off the Gentle Leader which is going okay. Still some more work to do, but we're getting there. I'm finding that the hardest thing for Rookie is staying in a sit by my side while I greet someone with another dog. His reaction is completely dependent upon the other dog. If the other dog sits politely, Rookie stays in a sit. If the other dog reacts to Rookie at all, he is likely to break the sit.

I lucked out this past week. There are only 3 dogs in the advanced class and the other 2 didn't show up. So we had a private one-on-one lesson! Our instructor is the Petsmart regional trainer and she's great. She really pinpointed some things that I was doing that were sending Rookie mixed signals. Once I fixed some of those things we took a big leap forward. Maybe a one-on-one session would be helpful for you?


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## hgatesy (Feb 14, 2007)

Camden got his right around the time he turned one. Which is great becaue now at 14 months his attention span has gotten WORSE! I think if we had to take the test again today we would really struggle through it.


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

How are your waits/stays?
How many minutes are you up to?
What distractions have you added?


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## Wilson's REAL Mom (Nov 10, 2006)

Wilson got his CGC right before he turned one. The testers were great with him. At the start, he was really, really acting up, and one of the trainers who was watching took me aside, told me to take him outside, put his prong on him, and really drill him for a few minutes, until he remembered who was boss and why we were there. After that, he was an angel! But, in my experience, the testers really want you to succeed.

We'll be taking Shelby for her CGC in the fall. The plan is for my 13 year old daughter to handle her. Shelby will be right at 2.


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## FriendsOfZoe (Feb 15, 2008)

LibertyME said:


> How are your waits/stays?
> How many minutes are you up to?
> What distractions have you added?


Well, not _that_ great...BUT she has come from having basically NO sit-stay at all to being up to 1 minute in less than a month.
So yeah, we are at a minute in sit, a bit longer in down, but she can't do it yet with any of the big four distractions (1-strangers/people, 2-dogs, 3-birds, squirrels, and other assorted wildlife, 4-balls), unless we use a LOT of treats. She does fine doing exercises with other people and dogs in the room, like in a class, but if a person or dog comes too close (within say 5 ft of her), she is just thinking only about playing or getting some love and nothing else (maybe liver, but even then, that's iffy).


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

My two went through CGC training before testing. The were just over a year old. Tucker would have passed without the class before the test, but Shadow...LOL

Shadow somehow passed with flying colors. It took a lot of work. It was the CGC test that made me go out and buy a prong collar. I needed them to both walk well on a leash and one was not responding as well as he should have been. One day with the prong and I no longer had any issues walking them without the prong. 

I had my youngest son and my DH take part in the class and the testing. I needed them to be on the same page as I was about training. They used to laugh at my skills, which were taught by the same trainers at the same facility. I think having all of us work on this together helped greatly. We all wanted them to pass.

Turn everything into a training session, from going outside, to waiting for her food.


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

You'll get there!
Do you work on stays/waits at mealtime - or when going out of the house....?
For instance, Trace is up to 2 minutes in front of his food dish in a down...and 1 minute in front of and open door in a sit (leashed of course).
At 15 months old it is not unreasonable to ask a dog to sit for a television commercial break and down for a 1/2 hour...

As to people...there really is no substitution for practicing with real people and dogs...Does your instructor give you an opportunity to practice 'meet and greets' in class? 

Learning self-control is definately a trainable task! Waiting for maturity to fix it would be a mistake...When you think of what is being asked of a dog that would rather visit and make friends - it really is an exercise of self-control to go against their desire to get what they wnat, when they want it.

This is one of those times when going to a different instructor who will see you with fresh eyes can be a big help...


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## FriendsOfZoe (Feb 15, 2008)

LibertyME said:


> This is one of those times when going to a different instructor who will see you with fresh eyes can be a big help...


That's the problem...we are already on our third instructor...this one seems to get us well (she trains tollers and goldens) but the class is just too big. I'm thinking that if we keep working on self-control in terms of stay work, that we will hopefully be able to translate that to meet and greets. Like I said, she had NO self control even about a month ago, and now she will sit-stay for about a minute with her food in front of her. 

We just don't regularly get to have a lot of practice with meet and greets...she is getting much better at ignoring people and dogs as we pass by, but I'm pretty shy and not so into the whole stop to meet someone to help me train my dog bit...usually I only meet and greet people who have already shown an interest in meeting Zoe, at which point she is already on the floor waiting for a belly rub.


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## Augie's Mom (Sep 28, 2007)

Augie just passed his CGC and Therapy dog last weekend, he is 19 months. What I've been working on is his attention since it appears to be the basis for everything (we are doing rally and taking agility classes). The CGC exercises don't require the precision that obedience requires and the evaluators really want you to pass so they aren't trying to trip you up or anything. I would suggest you give it a try. Before taking the test walk her around the area and do a few training exercises to get her in the right frame of mind and burn off some steam. Good Luck and let us know how you do.


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

FriendsOfZoe said:


> That's the problem...we are already on our third instructor...this one seems to get us well (she trains tollers and goldens) but the class is just too big. I'm thinking that if we keep working on self-control in terms of stay work, that we will hopefully be able to translate that to meet and greets. Like I said, she had NO self control even about a month ago, and now she will sit-stay for about a minute with her food in front of her.
> 
> We just don't regularly get to have a lot of practice with meet and greets...she is getting much better at ignoring people and dogs as we pass by, but I'm pretty shy and not so into the whole stop to meet someone to help me train my dog bit...usually I only meet and greet people who have already shown an interest in meeting Zoe, at which point she is already on the floor waiting for a belly rub.


You and Zoe _have_ come a long way in a month!

I dont usually stop people and ask them to help either...they already think I am nutty  But when out and about I do often stop have my dog sit and let the other person pass by without the dog gettting any attention other then from me...in the beginning I position myself between the stranger and my dog...just to make it a bit less tempting for the pup...

Sounds like your doing a good job...


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## Mandyjac (Apr 5, 2007)

I know EXACLTY how you feel. Our pup should have been named Tornado!! She is so typical golden in trying to meet everyone and everything that moves. We just passed our CGC two months ago at 16 months. I didn't think we would for all the same reasons that you are mentioning. My suggestion is to give it a shot. Worst case, you don't pass but you get to see EXACTLY what the test is like and what one or two parts you need to work harder on. I think it was only 10$ for us.
Honestly, the hardest part for us was the walk up to a stranger and dog, and the heel. I had practiced (in obedience) to get Maya to heel while watching me--so she was looking at my eyes and not at the person or dog ahead--this was a life-saver! by the time we got close to the other dog and person, I gave her a new command to sit/stay and shielded her from viewing them. Nothing says that the dog has to be right next to the other dog and owner. The proctor shook my hand quickly and we were off again. 
Really, the proctors WANT you to succeed, and they might even give you a tip or too before the test starts. And mine was a complete one on one thing, there were not 10 other people doing the same test at the same time. So there were no other distractions to the dog. Really, it was WAY easier than I expected, so just give it a shot. Even if we would have failed, my nerves about it would have been calmed and I would have had more confidence and knowledge to be able to pass it the next time. 

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

I just did CGC with Tally at 11 months, and am starting now with Tango. I know exactly what you mean by the golden traits like being so glad to see absolutely everyone making it a challenge. Tally sometimes gives his paw unasked, which isnt good. Two things helped him succeed. The first is scheduling a big walk before CGC classes & the test. Burn off a ton of excess energy first. Especially hrelps with greeting people and dogs, and the stay.This isnt good to do pre-agilty or upper obedience class bc then the dog seems dull to the instructor. But for CGC, Tally went to the beach for an hour to play and run before the test, and it helped him be gentlemanly and calm. Get her really tired in a fun way. Second is a ton of attention games starting way early in the process. I play them getting out of the car, in the parking lot, and coming into the test site. This stops me from being nervous and transmitting it, and it also gets the dog in a working mindset right off.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

The exercise helped us a lot! Shadow was not a "Good" boy shortly before the test was about to begin, so I took him outside and made him jog with me a little bit around the parking lot. Can't believe I was able to jog, but we did.


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## katieanddusty (Feb 9, 2006)

Dusty went through several rounds of Petsmart training and took the test at least twice when he was right around a year old. He actually passed the test when he was 4 years old and already had several advanced agility titles (they were giving it at an agility trial so we decided to try it just for fun). We hadn't done any formal obedience training for three years at least, but we had been spending that time at agility trials around lots of other people and dogs in lots of different places (and he'd learned a couple times that if you go too close to some dogs, you'll get a little owie on your nose).

If you're holding off on agility until she gets her CGC, that's not really necessary. As long as she doesn't drag you over to dogs/people 10+ feet away, and you're aware of the dogs around you and keep her away from them, you'd be fine. And if you started in a good beginning class now, she wouldn't be doing full-height obstacles for at least a few months more.

If you really really want to get the CGC, just take her hiking or swimming or something for a really long time before you take the test. What I did for the meet-and-greet was turn into Dusty slightly (with a dog that's been trained to come to front this will get their focus a little more on you) and have him sit as the person/dog were finishing up their coming. And if she tries to go over to a person during the walking through a crowd, try just following her so the leash stays loose and then try to call her away pretty quickly (so maybe it won't look like she went over to the person, maybe it'll look like you're just a dumb human who walked your dog right next to a person).


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Danny passed his test when he was 13 months old and he is a total spazoid most of the time, especially around other dogs. We took a class and we practiced the meet and greet during every class, over and over again. I used lots and lots of hot dogs during the practice sessions. Then the morning of the test, I took them for a long walk (Jasper was tested the same day, but I knew he would pass with flying colors). Danny did wonderfully. 

Actually, he made me realize his potential! We have done an agility class since and are trying to get into a freestyle class now.


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## nrhareiner (Feb 27, 2007)

Abby had her CGC by 9 months her RN and 2 legs to her CD by 12 months so it is very doable with a young dog. Never did take a single class.

Heidi


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## 3459 (Dec 27, 2007)

FriendsOfZoe said:


> You know, you are allowed to use martingale collars for AKC events now...lupine makes a nice all fabric limited slip martingale that is great not only for added control but for dogs (like goldens) who can "back out" of a flat collar...it's the "combo collar" http://lupinepet.com/dog/lg_dog.php:


FOZ, thanks so much for the link. I checked with my trainer tonight, and she confirmed that I can use it. So I'll be calling everyone listed locally who handles them tomorrow and see how quickly I can get one. The slip collar really helps with Chessie.

Thanks to all the trainers and kindred spirits who posted responses on this thread. I'm pretty discouraged tonight because my trainer is leaving. The new trainer has been involved in personally training dogs, but will be teaching her first class ever next week. Not gonna go there. Originally Chessie was to take her test late July or early August. Instead, we are now on a cram schedule to test July 3 with fewer training sessions and less training time, and we are only getting as much as we are because our own trainer is trying to help us out. We are just really weak on the meet and greets. 

Anyway, we are going to take the suggestions here, step up our own sessions every day, take outings to generate meet and greets, wear Chessie out before the test and take it as scheduled. I got a very late start with Chessie's training and we have both come a long way. If we don't pass, we will find another trainer we feel good about, keep on working, and try again.

Thanks a bunch, guys. :smooch: Today is one of those days I know why I really appreciate this forum. :wave:


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## FriendsOfZoe (Feb 15, 2008)

I agree DaMama...lots of helpful comments here. Our last class of this session is Monday night, and the following week they are offering the CGC test...I probably will just skip it unless the instructor really suggests I try it (I don't think Zoe will pass so I don't want to waste their time, but it would be interesting to see how many exercises she does pass...do they make you stop right away when you fail or can they let you keep going for the experience?).
But basically, I think we're going to spend the rest of the summer working hard and hopefully when they offer the test again in August or September (not sure when they next offer it), we can pass.

Just yesterday when we took a walk I started trying to wean off the treats. We didn't step off the sidewalk to pass people and I didn't offer a treat until I saw if she was going to react to the people. Unfortunately, she was a very excitable pup on the walk and I had to treat her for almost every person we passed...but I will keep working on it. I'm going to try the body blocking too, by stopping her, putting her in a sit stay, and standing between her and the person as they go by...if she can do that to someone passing close by, it shouldn't be too hard to add a quick handshake, right?


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## Wilson's REAL Mom (Nov 10, 2006)

If I remember right, you get three chances on every exercise before they fail you. I'd go ahead and try. You never know!


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