CGC #2

Yesterday was week 2 of the CGC prep class. John was kind enough to take Bug last weekend while I attended the Lyme seminar. This week we went reviewed the first three steps, which everyone worked on as homework:

1. Accepting a Friendly Stranger
2. Sitting Politely for Petting
3. Appearance and Grooming

Bug did attempt to either do a shoulder grind or request for belly rub when we did step 3. Katrin said that wasn't an issue - as long as he wasn't jumping on her, etc. We will work on remaining in a sit though.

While we were waiting for our turn to walk through the steps 1 - 3 we worked on sits and downs and "wait" (aka "stay"). Bug is doing super on his "waits" - door manners really do transfer to the rest of the world!

Next we practiced walking through a crowd (Step 5). Our crowd consisted of two dog/handler teams and one instructor. We wove between the group of three trying to keep our dog on a loose leash and paying attention. We did it three times, gradually using less food and asking for intermittent halts (with a sit). I thought Bug did really well on this as it isn't something we have practiced.

The flip side of this exercise is that when it is not your turn (and you are acting as part of the crowd) you needed to have your dog in a controlled sit or down "wait/stay" while another dog/handler walks by in close vicinity. I think this was really quite a challenge - especially for some of the younger dogs. Bug did really well on this. He says he will do just about anything for eye contact and cookies.

We ended the class with some heeling (Step 4). Bug and I haven't worked on heeling at all, however he didn't do terribly. It will take quite some time to build up to the relationship Ike and I have. At this point Bug understands I want him generally with me and does nice loose leash walking, but that is about it. He doesn't have a clear picture of what his job is - so I need to work on clarifying that for him.

All-in-all I found it to be a very enjoyable class and I am really happy with Bug's developing work ethic! This week I need to keep working on Sit-wait, Down-wait, heeling, and having people "groom" the Bug.