The Road to the CGC test

[Silaria]

It's 109.00 per dog,per each 8 week course. Now since I'm not sure where Trapp would be as far as classes,the guy I talked to asked me some questions about Trapp & what already knows well.He suggested the intermediate class.

Actually $109 for 8 weeks isn't too unreasonable. When I took classes at the Humane Society 3 years ago, they are $85.00. The place I took my CGC class and my Agility classes are all $100.00.

What about taking a class during the day or on a weekend, like a Saturday morning? I know Brian needs to sleep SOMETIME (I use to work a midnight shift) but if the class is early enough in the day it may not interfere with his sleep schedule. I remember when I worked midnights it was often 10:00/11:00 before I could actually settle down to sleep.

 

[take4roll10]

I paid $109 for Bailey's puppy classes there. I believe $109 is what all petsmarts charge. I think it's their set price.

I now pay $160 for classes at our local non-profit obediecene club. I go there because they offer agility training. Petsmart does not.

 

[Justicemom]

Diva's puppy classes were $125 for 7 wks for puppy kindergarten and then $150 for 10wks SuperPuppy(precomp obedience). Now that we are in Novice it is $75 for 10wks. My agility classes are $65 for 7 wks. Not the most competative class but since I'm going broke on obedience it works for me.

 

[Lovely]

I called our PetsMart that finally opened in Florance SC,and did some inquiry about CGC,and all the classes they offered. But I was quite shocked to the price for each 8 week class.

It's 109.00 per dog,per each 8 week course. Now since I'm not sure where Trapp would be as far as classes,the guy I talked to asked me some questions about Trapp & what already knows well.He suggested the intermediate class.

Then we have the problem of making it for every class,as they are held on the same night every week,which is a problem since Brian works nights,and his nights off during the week are not the same.Trainer suggested I could get approval to be in other classes on the nights Brian is off,but it takes getting approval,since class sizes vary.

So needless to say,my conversation was a dissapointment.

At PetsMart, you can retake the class as often as you need for free. Pierre took intermediate twice. And that's not a bad price, considering what I'm paying for the CGC class. For eight weeks, it is $139, but I am really happy with the program and the trainers. I think of it more like an investment in having the best companion I can have (kind of like a well-bred dog's high price tag).

Also, my hubby will not be able to make it on a few occasions because of work. So I will just go and we'll do our thing. I'm Duncan's handler anyway, though, so it doesn't matter very much. (Please don't tell DH!!!)

 

[Calliesmom]

Cranberry is in Petsmart Puppy class and yes, I think that the price is standardized. I've had my other two dogs in other classes so I'm not going so the Petsmart trainer can tell me how to do something- I'm going so Cranberry can meet other people/dogs and get a little playtime in. We'll definitely take the CGC test at some point - both the other dogs have theirs.

 

[Calliesmom]

We just back from Duncan's first class... ever.

We all know most of our Shelties are extremely quick and get things easily. Duncan can sit, down, stay, and all very well at home. I am working on generalization. We did all this without a class.

But I wanted to take things a step further - something that proves to me and the world he is as well-behaved as I think he is. Why not the CGC? And hey, it is a good start for any future work we do (like agility or therapy work, even though I think agility or Rally-O would be more fun!).

Welcome to Duncan's 8 week journey to the CGC test!

At just under 8 months old, Duncan was the youngest one there. There are two Goldens, one lab (wouldn't stop barking... ugh), a mini poodle rescue (her mom is a trainer at the facility we were at, so she is quite advanced), and Duncan. I think this is a nice sized class, considering it starts at 7:45 pm on a Wednesday.

We started off with introductions, something I expected. (Pierre has gone through four 8-week courses: three at Petsmart {one was a repeat} and one at the current facility.) Then, we talked about the CGC for a short time.

Then it became "Let's see where we are." I was really hoping we would do this. The instructor did the Politely Sitting for Petting it was a ice way for her to get to know the dogs. She loves Shelties, too! She said the love of her life was a Sheltie (and gave us a little push to start agility).

Next, the poodle demo'd her Loose Leash walking with all the turns flawlessly. Duncan is up next! Of course, the moment he started walking, all the other people were awing at his prancing gait. We did pretty well and the instructor said that he has excellent attention. Woo!! The poodle lady asked if I taught him to walk that way. I didn't mean to, but I giggled and politely said no.

While the others go, I practiced Sits and Downs to loosen Duncan up. All the while, the lab is barking its head off.

We then did the grooming portion. Duncan was fine. I will start bringing his brush, though, so that there is even less of a distraction. I am worried about this because by the time of the test, he will have had a back dewclaw removed (at the time of neutering) and I'm not sure if he'll be sensitive. I will have to be sure to get him used to his feet being picked up even after the surgery. On a side note, Duncan was fine with the teeth check. He actually likes getting his teeth brushed, so that may be part of it.

Duncan did exceptional with walking through a crowd. He isn't really interested in other people when walking. Woo!

We talked about hand targeting. I taught it a while back but have forgotten to keep up with it - so it was lost. I will be working on this!

When is came to Sits and Downs, all of the sudden, Duncan didn't know what I wanted. He just stared at my hand. I got a few good pointers on generalization. Also, I learned about release words. I've already been using "okay" without realizing it. I think I may switch to "all done" but I'm not sure.

From there, we practiced the Stay In Place. I backed up about 8 feet and Duncan decided that was too far and got up. I haven't been doing this very much, so this is a really big one for us. We were shown a method to work up to the 20 feet, by starting in really little steps. As we practiced, Duncan caught on very well. However, I need to work on my clicker coordination! I am good about using a marker word (YES!) but not about getting the clicker clicked! Good news though - Duncan was born to do a perfect recall!

Duncan was picked to try Reaction to Another Dog with the poodle. I think this was partly because he behaves and partly for size reasons. I wasn't sure how it was supposed to look, so I messed up. Duncan did what I asked well. I just didn't have the confidence in the situation to support him.

The instructor demo'd a distraction and tried to get Duncan to look at a rolling hoola-hoop, but he wouldn't even look away from me! It was really cool.

There may have been more, but I've had a really long day. I am seriously thinking about agility. First, though, I want us to pass this test!

Notes/Homework:
-Hand targeting
-Sits/Downs in various places
-Stay in Place (increase distance a little)
-Release words
-Me learning when to click

looking forward to hearing about your journey. then we'll know what to look out for as the pups grow up

 

[Lovely]

Thanks to everyone for the support.

I have a quick questions: teach Stay or no? My instructor told me that once put in the position, the dog should wait for the release word to move, therefore Stay is redundant. (She showed me how to use the Release word to make sure that Duncan was set up for success and I wasn't frustrated with him and he wasn't frustrated with me.) I understand that reasoning, but I don't know. The poodle's mom, another instructor at the school commented that she taught a Stay. The only way we could get Pierre to stay in place was the explicit Stay.

No offense to Pierre, but Duncan is brighter. With agility or some activity like it in the future, which is better? (I may need a whole thread for this one!)

 

[Strider]

Thanks to everyone for the support.

I have a quick questions: teach Stay or no? My instructor told me that once put in the position, the dog should wait for the release word to move, therefore Stay is redundant. (She showed me how to use the Release word to make sure that Duncan was set up for success and I wasn't frustrated with him and he wasn't frustrated with me.) I understand that reasoning, but I don't know. The poodle's mom, another instructor at the school commented that she taught a Stay. The only way we could get Pierre to stay in place was the explicit Stay.

No offense to Pierre, but Duncan is brighter. With agility or some activity like it in the future, which is better? (I may need a whole thread for this one!)

So the instructor is saying that the sit command has a built in stay? You would have to use your 'release' command EVERY time you wanted them to stop sitting, I would think. That means you would need to say it every time you moved after you stopped on a controlled walk.

We were taught sit-stay and down-stay and it works great.

 

[corbinam]

We do both--sit means sit until I tell you to get up, but it's not really used for extended periods of time. Stay, is more formal.

And yes, we do release our dogs EVERY time they are done with the command--"Sit....ok!"

 

[Lovely]

Is "okay" the most widely used release word? I was contemplating what the instructor said about using "all right" instead because it is something we need to consciously say and it isn't as widely used in normal conversation (that way, you aren't accidentally releasing your dog).