Greyhounds And Cgc

[Guest meggera]

Vanille and I are working towards CGC certification and I was hoping for inspiration. Has anyone successfully completed CGC with their grey? How did you convince your grey to sit for greetings? Vanille knows how to sit and does it but it is very obvious she dislikes it (she whines) and if she is asked to sit for a duration longer than 30 seconds she will move to the down position. I would love to hear your success stories and/or advice!

[Batmom]

Gidgie and Joseph both have their CGC. Gidget came to me knowing "Wait" = hold still, so I combined that with her sit-stay. IIRC our CGC evaluator didn't care so much if the dog broke the sit as long as the dog basically stayed in one spot and didn't jump on the person/dog we were greeting.

[FiveRoooooers]

Pal and Segugio both earned their CGC. Batmom is correct; as long as the hound will stay upon command, whether sitting or lying down or standing, and wait for you to call her, you should be good. *Have Fun* !!

[Houndtime]

My first two greyhounds, Brandy and John E, both had their CGC. You have no idea how hard that was for John E to pass through a group of people and dogs and not react. The instructor thought that the first dog of hers, to ever fail, would be John E. But, he knew how important it was to us, and he did it!!!

 

That being said, I have not taken the next three for obedience, but all three of them sit and sit well.

 

I think the CGC testors are a little lenient with greyhounds. Think positive; she can do it.

[cleptogrey]

emily had her's with in 3 months of leaving the track. patience and remember most testers are dog lovers and will generally accept short sits. if you know the tester and have worked w/he/her, she will tell you if your dog is ready.

[Guest LittleGreys]

Munchie has her CGC. It was several years ago, though, so I don't remember too much of the actual testing. She was also doing her TDInc testing around that same time.

[HoundHeavenAZ]

Leah got her CGC at an outdoor event ( in Kanab actually ) one day with a very scary garbage truck rumbling around in the parking lot emptying dumpsters It took her a bit to compose herself, but eventually she did a down/wait that satisfied the evaluator The evaluator has several greys of her own so sitting was not something she demanded of those that she tested.

Good luck to you both

[Guest meggera]

Huzzah! Hearing your success stories is so encouraging. Vanille and I have been having so much fun with class and are looking forward to continuing to progress.

[FountainLady]

Even Gus - had no problem learning to sit for his CgC and TDI testing.

 

Our obedience class instructor allowed me to bring in a rug for him to practice his downs, stays and sits on. The floors were slick - and with 3 legs, he would have had a problem getting back up without having traction.

 

I took Captain Gus to a basic obedience class in mid-summer, and then we just enjoyed the rest of the summer and practiced our commands.

I wasn't in any hurry to test him, but I was glad I had him ready to test and certify when I lost my lovely TDI therapy dog, Rainy - to cancer last October.

The head of our therapy dog group emailed me after Rainy's passing and let me know that there was an upcoming TDI & CgC testing date a week or so later. She suggested that it would be a good time to test Gus and get his certifications in order.

 

So - Gus went to the testing and he received both of his certifications that evening. Rainy would have been so proud of him!

[Guest june]

All three of my girls sit well. Jazzy has her CGC and her TDI. Patience is what works best with teaching and improving the sit. I used to have Jazzy sit and slowly feed her premium treats as long as she was sitting. No sit = No treat We finally got to a reliable 1 minute sit and on she went and got her obedience title. Good luck and make it fun!

[Guest jbbuzby]

My male Ferguson has his CGC which we worked on for a few months prior to taking the test...mostly because I had to teach him to sit, and it was not easy!

 

I got really into it too, and am a current CGC Official Evaluator. The whole thing is a lot more lenient than formal obedience. She can stay in a down too, and she shouldn't have to sit for more than 10 seconds throughout the duration of the test. Every evaluator is different, but the official rules themselves are conducive to success . I'm sure you'll do greyt!

[Guest Roadtripper]

No advice or success stories here, since I've never done CGC with my dogs, but I'd like to. So just wishing you & Vanille luck! I'm sure you both will do great.

 

Where are you taking classes? Calling All Dogs?

 

Amy

[Guest meggera]

No advice or success stories here, since I've never done CGC with my dogs, but I'd like to. So just wishing you & Vanille luck! I'm sure you both will do great.

 

Where are you taking classes? Calling All Dogs?

 

Amy

Thanks Amy. We are taking classes at Calling All Dogs and having so much fun. I wanted to hear everyones stories because I wanted to make sure I wasn't asking to much of Vanille. We will just keep practicing and making sure we are having fun as we go.

[Guest mirinaaronsmom]

My first greyhound passed his CGC. We did attend an obedience class when I first adopted him, but was told by the instructors that I should resign myself to the fact that he would never sit on command. From then on (the second class), they ignored us, so we stopped going. I just went on and trained with a friend who has a bichon/poodle mix. We both got our CGC's the same day with no problem at all. The only thing that scared me during the test was when he was doing his down/stay from 10 feet away, someone walked in and left the door open, but he ignored it. Boy, do I miss that dog. I haven't bothered getting it for my other two hounds since neither one is a sitter, and this tester required a sit. I'm sure Vanille will do just fine. Keep us posted.

[Guest itsagreytlife]

I mentioned in another thread that Selah is going for her CGC now too. My struggle is not a basic sit, but the heel/sit, which I think is what you were alluding to. Selah stands next to me beautifully and stays, but when I try to get her to sit next to me, she moves to sit right in front of me . Our instructor suggested I start the sit command over without the verbal command and practice, practice, practice the motion and proper treat giving on the left side. That being said, she says she will pass just fine since she knows Selah can calmly stand by my side for greetings (she's getting much better in greeting people on the street too! Now if I could just get her to stop sniffing every visitor to the house to death!)

 

Good luck to you!

Mary

[Guest Angelique]

Thanks Amy. We are taking classes at Calling All Dogs and having so much fun. I wanted to hear everyones stories because I wanted to make sure I wasn't asking to much of Vanille. We will just keep practicing and making sure we are having fun as we go.

I don't think you can "ask too much" as long as you are willing to put in the time, energy, treats and above all PATIENCE. As long as you are willing to accept the "hiccups" and the three steps back, one step forward.

 

Cassy has learned to do agility, he is not a pro, but it was fun and he loves the jumps. It made our bond and understanding/respect of each other flower. We never trained more than 15 minutes a day. Within 6 months we were able to win a 5 out of 8 among large breeds. We finished and he did almost everything, and thats good enough for me.

 

We were able to get a BH/VT certification and tested for VPG 1 and 2(previously SchH), we did not do the protection stuff so we did not get the certification, but we still scored in the high 80's for both tracking and obedience 1&2, which is amazing since it is traditionally only for working -"willing to please" "smarter" and "stronger" dog breeds. The tester had never tested a greyhound and couldn't quite get over how strange that was. That may have gotten us a few extra points It was a great experience and the people we worked with were very patient and tolerant of Cassies "limitations".

 

I have worked schutzund with GSD and Dobbies and after my experiment with Cassy I highly recommend it for anyone interested. (Make sure you get an understanding trainer/group though, greys are muuuuuch slower and more cautious/scardy, they are not *made* for that kind of stuff and you need people who understand that) The exercises are great and unless you have a true spook, I think it boosts most timid and shy greys confidence. It sure did with my boy.

 

My boy is still not an outgoing confident dog, but he scares much less easily when we are out and about, he is much more secure/confident and *sometimes* does what is told at home. When we are out i have almost full control of him and he has an awesome recall when no bunnies or squirrels are around. (If there had been one during the test we would have failed terribly)

 

I never imagined a greyhound would be able to do schultzhund ... or many other things we have achieved together. Go for it, just know when you are pushing your dog too far and slow down, take a break and go over what he already is a pro at.

 

Convincing Cassy to sit on a hard surface was the hardest part of everything we have ever done. So don't worry, after getting a solid sit, everything else is a piece of cake.