Canine Good Citizen Award

[Val]

The Canine Good Citizen (CGC) program, established in 1989, is an
American Kennel Club program to promote responsible dog ownership and
to encourage the training of well-mannered dogs. A dog and handler
team must take a short behavioral evaluation of less than half an
hour; dogs who pass the evaluation earn the Canine Good Citizen
certificate, which many people represent after the dog's name,
abbreviating it as CGC; for example, "Fido, CGC".

Hi Everyone...

We had another successful training tonight. Our "furkids" are learning
to focus on our instructions, sit, stay, and lay down. Our goal is to
have as many of our dogs pass the Canine Good Citizen Award as
possible. (Read below for test requirements and information). We will
continue to work with teaching our furkids new skills and we will also
start to work on the requirements necessary for passing the test. This
is a worthy goal! Maybe we could post the names of all the dogs who
pass this test and their families somewhere in the lodge and celebrate
their achievement.

Next week we will begin to work on coming when called, "naming" our
basic commands for the first time, and increasing the amount of space
and time of a stay. We will also start practicing having our dogs sit
when someone approaches to say hello.

We're making great progress everyone! Keep practicing. You are all
doing a great job! Don't hesitate to contact us if you have a
question.

Canine Good Citizen Award:
The evaluation consists of ten objectives. All items must be completed
satisfactorily or the team fails. Test items include:

Accepting a friendly stranger.
Sitting politely for petting.
Allowing basic grooming procedures.
Walking on a loose lead.
Walking through a crowd.
Sitting and lying down on command and staying in place.
Coming when called.
Reacting appropriately to another dog.
Reacting appropriately to distractions.
Calmly enduring supervised separation from the owner.
Evaluators sometimes combine elements during the actual test.

If all ten objectives are met, the handler can apply for a certificate
and special dog tag from the AKC stating that the dog has earned the
CGC.

Dogs do not have to be registered with the AKC to earn a CGC, nor do
they have to be purebred or, in fact, registered with any canine
organization. The goal is to promote good citizenship for all dogs.