Great News! Mint has earned Canine Good Citizen Gold!
First, let me explain what “Canine Good Citizen” is.
The Canine Good Citizen (CGC) is a certification program that identifies and rewards dogs that have the training and demeanour to be reliable family members as well as good-standing community members. There are four levels, Foundation, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Here is a list of exercises for each level. In order to pass a test, the dog needs to demonstrate all the exercises in the level successfully.
My eleven-year-old Beagle, Mint, earned his CGC Foundation and Bronze when he was two years old. However, he failed in a test for Silver two years ago, because he was unable to complete the four-minute stay untied with the handler out of sight. At around three minutes, he came to find me…
Out-of-sight stays have been very tough for Mint, especially because he has anxiety issues due to his epilepsy. Although I wanted to pass the CGC Silver test with him, I tried not to push him too much because I didn’t want to give him unnecessary stress just for a title. So, I tried to practise stays with him only when he looked less anxious and also constantly looked for ways to give him the motivation to stay without me in sight.
Although he had been doing the stays reliably recently, we hadn’t practised them with other dogs around. So, I felt ecstatic when I saw him still staying in the down position with other dogs at the end of the out-of-sight stay during the assessment! After that, he passed all the exercises not only for Silver but also for Gold and as a result he earned his CGC Gold title!
