[gaijingirl]

From my understanding when we took the class, the dog has to be over a year to receive their CGC. What about doing STAR puppy first? They are really similar. STAR puppy is a lot about learning how to be social and a little more relaxed about what you can or cannot do. For example, I think in STAR you can use a treat, but in CGC, you cannot.

We did both STAR and CGC at the same time. One at 5:00, one at 6:00, on the nights they had class. I was unsure of Snickers exact age, but knew he was somewhere around 1-year, more or less. Since STAR puppy was only 6 weeks, we took that test first and then CGC after 8 weeks. We passed both, but he actually did better in the CGC test, even though it is more difficult.

Getting to excited around strangers is partially an age thing. Also, if you have people who greet your dog in an overly excited way, it reinforces the behavior of them getting excited. It would be good if you could practice "meeting" some people, maybe friends or neighbors and ask them to just kind of ignore the dog when they come to you. They can calmly acknowledge him when he is calm and that will reward the good behavior and not reinforce the other as much.

I mostly just took my dog for a lot of walks in the weeks before the tests and made sure we followed all the guidelines every time, all the time, to get ready. Just a lot of repetitive behavior. I tried to take him to different places to walk. Walking on a leash around a high stimulus area, such as the dog park helps. Walk in places where there will be lots of distractions. I felt the worst part about both the classes and the test was that there was other dogs walking around the same area. Of course, that makes it REALLY easy for them to get distracted. I had the smallest dog there, who was unfortunately so close to the ground, it made it easy for him just just drop his little nose and start investigating. That's why I think the dog park might be good. You can get him used to focusing on a time when it is difficult to do so.

Get a friend your dog is not super familiar with to help you with the supervision test. I would maybe go in a parking lot and you can walk 50-100ft away (not sure if there is a requirement on how far you have to go) and hide behind a car. You can watch your dog's reaction, but make sure they can't see you. Just act like it's no big deal and he will feel less anxious. I think also not making a big deal about it when you come back will help. Especially if he seems anxious, don't "baby" him or greet him super excitedly like you might when you come home at night. Just be casual and nonchalant about it.

I didn't know if we would pass, just because Snickers was so young and so hyper active. He had all the "book" knowledge, if you will, and could do all the requirements and then some, but the age factor is big, I think, Especially for active little dogs like Yorkies. Interestingly enough, we were the ONLY people in our class that passed! I was really surprised at that. There was one dog who was a Golden Retriever, about 4-years-old and really calm and laid back. Her owner actually trained search and rescue and cadaver dogs. She did everything perfectly in class, but when she did the test, she screwed something up...I don't remember what, but I was shocked that dog failed. Just had an off night. I guess just like us, they can know what the answers are, but still make mistakes.