Who knew that becoming a Canine Good Citizen is so much work for the humans?
We
are taking another Canine Good Citizen class to help Kozmo (and us)
prepare for the Canine Good Citizen Exam and so he doesn't forget
everything he has learned before our next agility classes start. In
order to take, and pass, the Canine Good Citizen Exam dogs have to wear a
regular, flat collar. No training collars or harnesses of any kind can
be used for the exam. I wish we could go back in time and start Kozmo's
training again. In our first class we were told to use a training
collar. It worked. We were happy. It seems the training collar is a
crutch. He is really good with the collar and without it he acts just
like he did at his first class when he was 5 months old. He was a lot
easier to control 5 months and 30+ pounds ago. I am determined to get
Koz off the training collar. Not just for the exam, but all the time.
We took Kozmo to class with a regular collar. Since it's a new group
of people and dogs Kozmo was excited and wanted to bark at every thing.
All of the dogs in this class are young and learning. It's a small
class with only 3 other dogs and they are all so cute I want to play
with them. We have a Weimaraner, Newfoundland, a little black cutie, and
Koz. I think Koz is the oldest at 10 months, the other two big dogs are
both 8 months. Due to our complicated and busy lives Kozmo's humans had
to drive separately and the other human was a few minutes late. We
began class with polite walking on a leash. The other human quietly
entered and sat down. It wasn't until we started to work on sit stays
that Kozmo saw his other human. He was so excited. He was jumping and
tugging and just had to go see him. At least he knows us now. I worried
that he had so many different homes as a pup that he might not recognize
us as HIS family.
So we worked on sit and down with stays. In theory Kozmo knows this
stuff. Without the training collar and the new dogs and people he forgot
most of what he knew and was a real handful. At one point he got his
leash in his mouth and tugged so hard he ripped the leash out of my hand
and was off and running directly to the Newfoundland puppy. I got Koz back
with a lot of drool from the Newfie, she is beautiful but slobbery!
Finally we got to the part of class where Koz excels. Our trainer
set up a tunnel. It was the first time through the tunnel for all of the
other dogs so Kozmo and I got to go first to show the other dogs how
much fun the tunnel is. I was so proud of my little dude, he approached
the tunnel, sat, waited, ran through on command and came back to me!! It
was perfect. Tempting fate, our trainer asked us to do the tunnel a
second time. Just to keep me humble, on his second try he exited the
tunnel and ran around the room showing off and showing everyone that
even though he can do a tunnel perfectly he's still a puppy and playing
is more fun than listening to his human.
Kozmo is going to have lots of real world good citizen practice this
weekend. He is spending the long holiday weekend at the lake, where he will
meet lots of new people and dogs, and have a few more swimming lessons.
His brand new doggy life jacket is on a UPS delivery truck as I type.
Clearly Kozmo and his humans need more practice but we are on our way to
being good citizens!
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