Saturday Abby passed her Canine Good Citizen test with flying colors. We are so proud of her! She waited until after she was completely done with the whole test before she barked her happy woo hoo bark. Now all I have to do is wait for her official tag from the American Kennel Club and start calling around to see which nearby facilities will appreciate her visits. Here is the list of things she had to do:
Accepting a friendly stranger
sitting politely for petting
letting evaluator brush her and look at teeth, ears, eyes and touch between toes
walk along side owner without pulling
walk through a crowd
sit and down on command/stay in place
coming when called
pleasant reaction to another dog
ignoring distractions
separation from owners for 3 minutes without whining, barking or pacing
During the test, she was not allowed any food/treats, just praise and petting. Not allowed to pee or poop during the test or will fail. Dog fails if dog growls, snaps, bites, or attacks.
After Abby passed the test, we of course clapped and congratulated her. We took a picture of her with the other dogs who helped provide distractions and assisted with the test. Right before I clicked the picture, Abby decided she should be front and center and moved up away from Gerard. Then we stayed and helped Bosco, the big black rescue dog take the test too. His owner was surprised that was all there was to it and thought Bosco could do that too and did! Afterward, we went to the park for a couple hours to celebrate. It was a big day for Abby and us!
Abby was tested at PetSmart by her trainer, Vickie, who didn't want her picture taken. Vickie was such a good trainer and she said "Abby was one of the most docile dogs she ever met and is absolutely one of the sweetest, most loveable dogs I have ever tested."
Abby says, Happy 4th everyone! Hope you all are good citizens too! Fly your flag! Woof! Woof!
(We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.)
We are enjoying our dog training classes very much and Gerard and I are learning that dog speak is very specific. Abby is the "social butterfly" in our class and has quickly made friends with all the other dogs. Even the shy Killer came to her to sniff Saturday.
There are several differences between wait and stay:
Wait means to stop for several seconds such as when someone is at the door, or before crossing a street. It's a short-term command. The hand signal for wait that we learned is just holding up one finger like we do when we say "Wait a minute." When wait is done, we praise and tell the dog "let's go" or "come."
Stay is more specific and more permanent. We want the dog to stay put in that particular spot until we come back to the dog to release it by saying "done" or "finished" to release the dog. The hand signal for stay is an open hand right in front of the dog's face. I use stay to tell Abby to stay downstairs when I go upstairs to visit the cats. It's not used as often as wait, but is an important command to learn.
It is important to be consistent with the words and the signals every time and do it the same way so the dog knows what we want and doesn't become confused. Stay is a hard command to learn, not only for the dog, but also for us owners. To teach stay, we must be patient and work in tiny steps. First we have the dog stay put while we stand in front of it. It's okay if the dog sits or lays or stands as long as it stays in that same spot. In the beginning, just slowly take one step back for 2 seconds, then try one more for 2 seconds and come back to the dog, praising it for a good stay and releasing it saying "done." Try again increasing your distance. If the dog does not stay for you, then try it again at a shorter distance away, take fewer steps. Above all, be patient, the dog generally wants to please you but won't if you get upset.
Watch the video to see how Abby and I did at learning stay:
Abby did really well on stay for me once I could get her to sit. This video shows how I goofed at first by forgetting to come all the way back after she succeeded but then I remembered from then on. Gerard had a tougher assignment--he had to have her lay first and then stay which took awhile but she did it! Then, all the dogs were lined up in a row which meant Abby had Killer on the one side of her and Odot on the other which was hard for her to ignore. Gerard's video is posted on Abby's blog at: "Saturdays Are So Much Fun."
For "Come" the trainer said we should give a special treat because it is so important for them to learn this. The trainer told us that her dog was running along her fence barking at the dog on the other side when she called several times for it to come. The dog ignored her so she went back in the house and got a raw carrot which her dog loves. This time, she called, "If you COME, you'll get a carrot with emphasis on "come." The dog came immediately, no hesitation at all. For Abby, she seems to really love the meat filled chew sticks and the Better Than Pigs Ears so we're going to use those when we do the come command with her.
I highly recommend dog training classes. We all enjoy it, especially Abby. Notice how her tail always seems to be going in the videos?
We are learning a lot in our dog training classes at PetSmart with Abby. Basically a new command is introduced and each dog gets to try it with their owners and assistance from the professional dog trainer. Then, it's up to us to practice at home. In the class, it took me and Abby about eight tries to get her to sit and wait while I opened the door and not come until called. Everyone clapped when she finally did it right and she was very pleased with herself. It took Gerard and her about four tries.
This video was not pieced together or edited except for inserting the titles. As you can see, we are making progress. It took only two tries to get it right for both Gerard and me.
The idea is to get her to sit first, then open the door and tell her to come. Then praise her and give her a treat. Also, we were told when we walk the dog to make her wait before crossing any street. She does this well, but of course, she is on a leash. The trainer said though that if she's trained to wait at a street and not go until told, then if she got off the leash, she would probably wait at the street which could save her life. We have to keep working at this because at the park when she got loose, I didn't see her stop when she got to the park road.
As usual we took Abby to the park this morning. I didn't bother bringing my video camera or digital along because I figured we already had pictures of walks in the park. Little did I know today we would have yet another adventure and it would be different from other walks in the park!
We were walking along really well, Abby was staying with us real good and we were having a great walk through the Big Creek Metropark. When we came to the main road, it was going so well and she still had a lot of energy so we decided to continue along and cross to the other side. I thought we could take a short break so crossed through the wide open area and sat on a bench for awhile. All of a sudden, I notice Abby is off the leash, running down the park road, around the bend and kept on going even though both Gerard and I were calling her to "come." Ha! A lot of good that did! She was really moving and people were stopping to help us try to catch her. (Actually it was only about maybe three minutes what seemed to me like 15, she changed direction and headed back toward us. She went by a couple men who were working on the shelter roof and Gerard called to them to please stop the dog for us, which the one guy did after asking if it belonged to us.
I am so thankful it happened at that park in an area far enough away from the main road and not while Gerard was walking her early this morning or while we were crossing the main road to get to this side of the park. I'm surprised it didn't come off when I was running with her across a flat patch of grass and trees near the parkway road. Whew! It could have been so much worse!
I believed she would come back to us at some point (if she didn't get hit by a car first) but it was good that nice guy was able to stop her. Abby looked so happy running free like that it made me wish we knew of someone around here with a farm where we could let her run free. Several people at the park watched as we called for her and started calling for her to come too. One couple even got in their car to go look for her.
The crazy thing is I can't figure out how the leash came off. The metal hook that is connected to the collar that it was attached to did have a tiny gap on the one side but was not big enough for the leash to pull through. The dog trainer thought it may be the leash and the clasp must have slid over somehow and slipped off. What a scare!
Gerard waited with Abby holding onto her collar while I went all the way back to get the car and bring it over (about 20 minutes later). Then we headed for PetSmart and got her a new collar and leash. When we went to PetSmart, one of the clerks show us how we could wrap the leash around the collar and then through the handle of the leash and hold the other end but neither of us even thought of that at the park.
I had left my video and camera in the car figuring we already had pictures and video of the park outings with Abby so people wouldn't want to see another one--too bad I didn't have this on the video--she was really beautiful running so fast over the grass and it was sort of funny that she didn't think about us at all. The best I could do is take some of her dog training class today and her getting her new collar. Her class mates Chewy, Killer are in it. We worked on the "come" command. You can be sure we'll be working a lot more on that one outside too!
