Tonight Emmett and Lucas take a practice AKC Canine Good Citizen test. I’m looking forward to it because I’m pretty sure they’re going to fail spectacularly. However, it’ll give me a really clear picture of what we need to work on before the real test a week from today. Before Emmett’s therapy dog test, I “loaded” my pockets, meaning I gave him treats all day long, sometimes for no reason, out of the same pocket. In no time he made the association between my hand going in my pocket and him receiving a treat. You are not allowed to use any treats for the test, so I used this technique to trick him. Before the test component requiring him to completely ignore another dog – his biggest challenge – I stuck my hand in my pocket. He instantly gave me his full attention and practically waltzed past the other dog. Therefore, I’m repeating that maneuver for this test. We’ll give it a whirl tonight and then refine over the next week.
In the meantime, I discovered a couple new blogs today that I wanted to share. They’ll be added to my blogroll, but here they are:
Why Everyone Should Train Dogs
And this one is already on my blogroll, but I thought today’s post – How many words does your dog know? – was particularly interesting. After tonight’s CGC debacle, I think I’m going to catalog the boys’ vocabulary.
Thanks for the link.
Good luck with that practice CGC test. The dogs will do better than you think they will! But you are right, it’ll give you a good idea of what they need to work on. Good trick with the hand in the pocket.
Thanks, Lindsay! It turns out both boys would’ve failed the test last night… but now I know exactly what to work on this week. Thanks so much for the encouragement!