Thursday, April 1, 2010

CGC Class at Doglando

Would you like to have your dog become a Canine Good Citizen? Register today to take the four week CGC prep course at Doglando starting April 11, 2010.

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".

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.

Doglando's CGC course preps dogs and their handlers for the test, which will be taken on the last day of the four week course. Upon successful competition of the course and test, 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... as Doglando puts it to "Dog Responsibly."

The program has also been an important option for some communities wrestling with whether to adopt breed specific legislation (BSL), such as cities like Pasco, Washington, which has experienced pit bull owner problems. Their hybrid program allowed owners to either secure very expensive insurance or have their dog pass the CGC test. The test, in this case, was actually more a Good Canine Owner test and led to a drastic reduction of dog threats and attacks.

There is no bad dog, only bad owners. Sign up for Doglando's CGC class and show you are a responsibly pet parent.

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