CGC test

[Shai]

IME the supervised separation depends on the judge. Some will allow a bit of whining as long as they don't feel the dog is being disruptive or overly stressed. Others will fail for much less.

Mira actually took it twice because they first one was at our home club and I felt like it was cheating since she knew the evaluator and the helpers and even the helper dog lol. So we took it a second time at the FCR nationals that year and passed again but that one was weird...a local club conducted the test and we were up first...the "helper dog" was a Chessie who growled and lunged at 1 yr old Mira who was sitting next to me then growled at other dogs going by. /sarcasm/ Great helper dog /sarcasm/. So they removed him from the facility and got another dog. The distraction exercise was a helper dropping a bag and having treats and toys fall out all over the place next to you and your dog. And for the supervised separation, the helpers took the dogs and walked them out of the room instead of having the handlers leave while the dogs stayed behind.

Weirdest test I've ever seen, and my previous three tests took place at three different clubs in two different states.

[CatStina]

Saxon's doing it on December 10, I'm a bit nervous about the separation part, as well.

[Laurelin]

Heck, Mia passed her CGC first go around. If she can pass the CGC, then you have nothing to worry about.

[Beanie]

I'm currently playing Look At That with every weird thing I can find... found Auggie's old BumbleBall and turned that on. So far the weirdest thing to Payton was the wind-up t-rex. BumbleBall was no big deal. Plastic bag full of stuff shaken, no big deal. Handful of cookies thrown on the floor, no big deal.

I still don't know if he can do this LOL.
Oh God.

[Shai]

Originally Posted by Beanie

I'm currently playing Look At That with every weird thing I can find... found Auggie's old BumbleBall and turned that on. So far the weirdest thing to Payton was the wind-up t-rex. BumbleBall was no big deal. Plastic bag full of stuff shaken, no big deal. Handful of cookies thrown on the floor, no big deal.

I still don't know if he can do this LOL.
Oh God.

Relax! It'll be fine. Really. The worst he can do is give you some really hilarious story to tell forever...which really isn't all that bad lol.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Originally Posted by Shai

Relax! It'll be fine. Really. The worst he can do is give you some really hilarious story to tell forever...which really isn't all that bad lol.

See, my dogs are FULL of stories. Sometimes those are better than ribbons.

[Shai]

Originally Posted by AdrianneIsabel

See, my dogs are FULL of stories. Sometimes those are better than ribbons.

'zactly! How many times have I told the stories of Kim's perfect rally scores? Never except in vague terms, and rarely even that.

How many times have I told the story about when Kim decided six rally runs in a day was stupid and informed me of this by picking up a rally sign, looking me in the eye, and chucking it across the ring? A bjillion times.

[Southpaw]

Originally Posted by JacksonsMom

What are the requirements for the supervised separation? Like, are they allowed to whine a bit, and look curious as to where I am, or do they just have to sit there? Can he still see me?

Kind of depends on the evaluator, as to how much whining or whatnot they think is "acceptable." Some of the dogs that I saw pass the supervised separation, I thought NO WAY should they have. Pacing, whining, some barking. And not like, just for a couple seconds - pretty consistently throughout the whole exercise.
They can move around, but it shouldn't be distressed pacing or they shouldn't be pulling on the leash trying to follow you.

Practicing out of sight stays is super awesome for this. You're giving your dog something to "do" instead of just walking away and leaving them to their own devices. Instead it's just another stay exercise, something they know. No biggie. I put Juno in a sit-stay and I think everyone was bored because she just sat still as a statue staring at the door I had went through.

My biggest worry was LLW past another dog. Luckily, during the test was about the only time I have seen Juno NOT react.

[Beanie]

Okay so I decided to take him to PetSmart to practice. He did amazing in the store, I was feeling pretty good. Put him back in the car and he started flipping out at a fire hydrant he saw on the side of the road as we were driving. *facepalm*

Got to the club and got out of the car to a line of people waiting for the doors to open, so I took Payton off in the grass and pottied him and started working. He was doing amazing again so we went closer to the line, where people had dogs freaking out and barking and lunging at other dogs. GREAT. Played more Look At That and he was awesome. I took a video on my cellphone but it was so dark I don't think it turned out... he kept offering "sit pretty" LMAO. and I kept rewarding it because HOW CAN I NOT.

Then we had to get into the building when the doors opened which meant we had to get actually IN LINE... with all those dogs who were spazzing at other dogs. And spazz dogs make Payton a spazz. URGHHHHH... I picked him up. I just picked him up. He was stressing and I was like NOPE not gonna happen, up into my arms you go. I'm not letting another person's ill behaved dog spoil this for us AGAIN.
Got inside and I got us settled down in a chair in the corner and started working on getting him to calm back down. Filled out my form and Payton had a I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THAT IS I DON'T LIKE IT moment at the frickin' CLIPBOARD I was using the fill out my paperwork on. Well this does not bode well.
Watched other people practice by which I mean I watched people jerked their dogs (who were clearly way too stressed and were doing their best to NOT look at their handler) around the practice ring on chains and one guy whacked his dog when it snarled and lunged at another dog. Got Payton chilled out and thought, okay, now it's our turn to practice... and see how this goes.

My dog may not have the tightest heel, but it's the most enthusiastic, attentive, happy heel. Especially in comparison. And it was around OTHER DOGS going spazzo!!
I sat back down and could feel eyes on us. I just played with my dog some more and thought "I don't care if he has a total meltdown during the distraction test. This is a victory. This is worth it."


It wasn't a perfect heel in the actual ring, he got more distracted once we were "in the ring." But he did everything reasonably well and he was AWESOME in the distraction test. The lady dropped a bag full of soda cans right in front of him and he just looked offended, like "Why are you throwin' stuff?" Hardly even looked at the guy hobbling around on crutches.
The guy came back from supervised separation and said "this is the most talkative dog..." Uh oh, LOL. Apparently he took Payton in the room and shut the door, and Payton looked at him, muttered something, then turned back to the door and muttered at the door. And kept muttering back and forth. Like "C'mon. We should go back out there. This is boring!" That is apparently NOT a fail.

So my Pay has his very first ribbon! I shouldn't be that proud especially considering some of the other dogs who also passed, but I can't help it when I was anticipating Mr. Horrible Meltdown to come out and play.
YAY PAYTON

[monkeys23]

Woohoo, congrats! Sounds like you guys did really well considering the chaos!