Somehow, this thing passed the CGC

'Ey

Conker the Shiba Inu is now a Canine Good Citizen! It's just a certificate, not anything special (and I think that titles mean just about nothing anyways) but for Conker, this is a pretty big thing.

I never really talked (on the blog) about just how bad Conker was when I got him. Think Shiba Inu puppy, that is four months old, with absolutely NO bite inhibition, terribly food aggressive towards anything that moves, not house-trained, has no manners, and is afraid of everyone but me... Basically, he was part-feral (I truly mean that), and he was a big project right from the get-go.

The worst bit was the stranger fear. It is still an ongoing process, but Conker has made some pretty big improvements in the last few months.  Conker had gotten to the point that he was good enough around strange people, where as long as they didn't bother him, that he was fine with them being close to him. As in standing right beside him. That was HUGE for Conker, and I took that as a sign that he might be ready for CGC.
He was not overly fond of the training classes we took, but by the end he would accept two of the trainers with no issue, and one of the others with only a small amount of shying away. (One of the trainers and several handlers he still would not allow to pet or groom.) Conker was even okay with being left alone for 3 minutes with some nice elderly ladies, one of whom just adored Shibas.

Anyways, I'm glad that Conker was able to pass this thing. I still have a few things I need to work on him with but I really did not think that he would be able to pass the CGC this soon. It's been just shy of two years that I've had him, and in that time he's gone from being a wild, snapping, biting, fearful, maniac to what the AKC conciders to be a good citizen.

I don't think he'd have passed if they saw how he can be at home though... He's still got a bit of that feral side in him.

CGC class week 4

Today was the last day of CGC classes. Conker did good again, still was a bit nervous with the friendly stranger thing, but the trainer thinks he will pass. We'll see how he does this Saturday.

Not much else going on today. We didn't hike because of the class, and my sister and her fiancee are in town.

CGC class week 3

Conker did really good today. We did the usual heeling, then we worked on greeting a friendly stranger and supervised separation. Conker was, like normal, shy of the friendly stranger, but he did GREAT with the supervised separation. That kinda shocked me. No whining or looking for me, just chilling with the lady in a lawn chair. So, that's really good.
He did some very nice heeling, good recall, stays, downs, sits, etc... He wasn't so fond of the noise distractions, but he was good with the crowd. He also did good with the thing where two people with dogs walk towards each other and say hello, but the dogs don't. (Can't remember what that's called.)

Anywho, one more week of class to go, then after that is the CGC test! Hopefully Conker will be ready for it by then.

CGC class week 2

We did a lot of the same stuff that we did last week. Mostly heeling, with some sit/stays and down/stays. Conker was very, very, very bored, and ended up having some digestive distress in the middle of it. (We left the ring and hid behind some bushes for a bit when that happened.) I don't know what caused that, so I will have to investigate and find out.

Anywho, as promised, here is a picture of Jane, the Chinese Street Mutt.

She's a little bigger than Conker, maybe something like 30 pounds or so. Super cute and super sweet.

CGC class week 1

Today was the first day of the free four-week long (4 sessions) CGC training class in Riverside Park. I did it last year with Sasha, who was pretty great, and earned her CGC at the end of the classes. It's Conker's turn this year, and so far he's done pretty darned good.

The trainers recognized me from last year (they all still think I am a guy) and many of them said I was the "star pupil" last year. That was, kinda, wow, unexpected, really. I did not think I was that good, but apparently they believe I am quite a good dog trainer.
After the introductions and blah blah blah about what we will be learning, we worked on some heeling. Conker has never been good at heeling on-leash, or anything on-leash, so I knew there would be a couple problems here. I was right, but Conker worked through them very quickly and by 10 minutes in, he was heeling very nicely. Not perfectly, but a lot better than I figured would happen. We worked on sits, downs, stays, and come, as well. All of which Conker aced.
During the "down time" when the trainers were explaining something or talking to an individual, Conker and I worked on stays, but instead of calling him to me I walked back to him and around behind him to his side. Sasha always had big problems with that and would break her sit and follow me, so I had to return directly to her. Conker would swivel his head around and watch, but did not break his sits or downs.
Anywho, I was thinking Conker was not going to like the "friendly stranger" part. I was mostly right, but also wrong. He was a bit nervous, but allowed the trainer to pet him and examine his feet. He was not enthusiastic, but relaxed when I talked to him and scratched his chest.
That's basically all we did this week. I think we will work more on the stranger bits and distractions next week, which is more of what Conker needs to do.

A funny part was one of the trainers spotted Conker and said "Ooh, you have a Shiba! Well, good luck." Which I thought was a bit funny. I guess she thought Conker was going to be difficult. While he did lose interest a few times and totally spaced out on me, he was one of the better dogs in the class. This must have surprised the trainer since she said to me later "Whatever you are doing, keep it up. I was not expecting him to be so good." That was amusing, and goes to show that breed stereotypes don't always match up.


We met a nice couple who'd lived in China and got a mutt while they were there. The Chinese mutt, who's name I have already forgotten, was really fricking cute. She didn't understand a lick of English, but knew everything in Chinese. It was funny watching her try to learn the commands in English, then see her perform in Chinese. She looked like two completely different dogs.

Sasha passed the CGC!

Yay Sasha woo...

She did very well during the entire thing and only "messed up" during the dog meet n' greet thing.  She tried to sniff the other dog but I caught her quick enough that it didn't count against her. 
I'm going to be sending her paperwork into the AKC to get a certificate thingy to stick on the wall or something.


In other news...

There were some neat dogs at the event today.  Afghan Hounds, at least five were there.  I also saw a Rhodesian Ridgeback, a Hungarian Kuvasz, Irish Setters, Dobermans, Shelties, some loud and obnoxious Puli, many many Corgi's (one had long hair!) several GSD's, many mutts, some Chi's, Pugs, a ton of Poodle-oodle-whatevers... It was pretty neat.  Nothing outstanding was there but it was fun to see the different types of dogs in one place.

CGC Training: Week 3

So!  Today's class went well.  We did the 3 minute separation thing, some distractions and brushed up on anything the trainers noticed we were lagging at.

Sasha, as usual, did great again.  One of the trainers, during the meet thing said to me:  "I really like this dog, I really do."   That made me feel better about Sasha's less-than-perfect downstay which she'll break at random times. She's getting better but still needs some work. 
She is pretty good with other dogs walking by, even sniffing at her.  There was a playfight between to dogs beside us and she ignored them the whole time.
So as long as you don't go waving a steak in her face she's great with distractions.  In a class setting that is, I still need to take her out a bit more and work on real-world distractions.
Sasha has also almost gotten heel down.  She will still stray or stop to sniff things but she's at about 80% right now, and that's very good.


I still would have liked to have done this with Conker instead but I know the friendly stranger and supervised separations parts are what would really get him. Unless it's a calm, quiet woman he don't want nothing to do with them.  And even then it normally includes touching, which is also required.  In the separation part I know he'd flat-out fail, and I don't want to stress him with that sort of stuff right now.
I'm hoping that I can find an actual class for this to take with him, one where there are less dogs so the trainers can focus on the problems of each dog instead of just go with a general survey of everybody.  I'd be even better if the class were for shy or fearful dogs, but I still haven't found one yet.

My computer is old

It has some serious lag when it comes to sites with a ton of flash on them.  Even photobucket gives it trouble.

So, like, I totally forgot what I was going to write.  Wait... Yeah, totally forgotten.  So lets write about something else!
Sasha's CGC class went well.  We learned down, stay and some more heeling.  They are really focusing on heeling since a lot of people's dogs are still spazmoids.  Namely Penny the mix that I see at the dog park, a bigass chocolate Lab, a Boxer, some other mutt and a Cardigan Corgi (who's owner is convinced he's a Pembroke.) Sasha has done very well with sitting since she automatically sits now whenever I stop.  She is slowly getting better with down but still needs a lot of work, that and staying in whatever position I told her to (down or sit)
I took her to the Grange yesterday.  The first time I've ever taken her into a building other than a house or vets office.  She did very well but was incredibly distracted by everything.  I also took her to Mini Pet Mart where she tried to steal some treats from a bin while I was talking to the owner of an adorable little Pom-thing.  I am going to take her to a lot more places and work on her sitting and staying in a sit in distracting enviroments.

Conker is still afraid of people on walks. Two little kids really wanted to pet him but he was all "NOOO!  GETAWAY FROM ME!"  Not cool since I was walking him on his collar, which is a choke chain for those of you who don't know.  Yes, I walk my Shiba on a choke chain.  Why?  Because he can escape everything else, even properly adjusted martingales, and I'm too lazy to put a harness on him 80% of the time.
Anyways, I'd really like to find some sort of scaredy dog class that will get Conker to the point where he won't get all RUNAWAY! at certain people.  I don't want him to love everyone or want to be pet, I just don't want him freaking out when some little kid sprays his sister with a hose.  He is good for the most part and stays beside me but with some people, no, he still tries to run. 

Mom wants me to reorganize the garage.  Like, the entire thing.

I gave the Girls a quarter turkey back today.  They were equal to about a whole chicken back, and even then they were still huge.  See, I've got a shitload of turkey backs since Rays sells them so cheaply and I always feel like I have to buy them.  Those and turkey necks which come with a gizzard, heart and liver. Speaking of turkey liver, I have no idea what to do with all the ones I've got since they have so much vitamin A I can't use them regularly.  They have like, 400% more vitamin A than Conker needs... per ounce!  That's a friggin lot, so if you know of something to do with turkey livers, for dogs and even people, let me know.

But the Girls really liked their turkey backs.  I'm going to give them more.  Conker got a turkey tail and some pork meat which he did eat.  He has also suddenly learned how to chew, and he took such a long time chewing the turkey tail I was wondering if he was actually going to eat it or not. 

CGC Training: Week 1

My local Kennel Club is holding Canine Good Citizen training at the Riverside Park each Wednesday for four weeks.  It's free and open to anyone, so I decided to take Sasha down there and give the training a shot. The test can be taken at a dog even the weekend after the training is done.
I want Conker to get his CGC more than Sasha, but he still has stranger issues while on-leash and I'd like to know what needs to be done in to get the CGC, so I figured I'd take Sasha since she's the most mellow of my three.

There was a good assortment of dogs there, most of them common breeds.  Labs, Golden Retrievers, a German Shepherd and a couple mixes, Rottweilers, Dobermans, too many to count Poodle-oodles, some Doxens... And a couple lesser seen breeds, like the Ridgeback I'd met before, a pair of gorgeous Afghans, a long-haired Corgi, a Newfoundland... It was neat seeing all those dogs there in one place.

The class is taught my some really nice older people, the group I was in anyways.  They used a combination of negative and positive reinforcement.  Meaning, if you dog isn't heeling, give a "pop" so they do, but praise and treat if they listen.  If they don't sit, pull up on the collar or lure into a sit with a treat and praise well afterward.  I don't have a problem with this kind of training, it's actually almost the same as what I already do with Sasha. 
They do want you to use a prong or choke chain until your dog is good, but they let me use Sasha's chain martingale without a problem.

We basically learned what to expect from a CGC test, what they will do with the dogs then learned how to get the dogs to heel, sit and stay.  I guess we'll be learning longer stays, long come and laying down next week.
Sasha did great with everything but when I had to tell her to sit.  See, whenever I'd get her to move so she would stand she's sit before I even told her to, so I was walking around trying to say "sit!" before she did.  The teacher lady laughed and said Sasha was fine, and it was good that she kept sitting automatically this soon in the class.


Anywho, that's all for now.  I'm going to work on Sasha's stay and get her to learn "down" before next week so I'm ready for it.  Next update on the CGC training will be Wednesday the 31st.