IS YOUR DOG A GOOD CITIZEN?

Your dog is the warm pocket of comfort that nestles by your side as you lounge on the couch, your own personal doorbell, and your excuse to feel young again by rolling on the floor and playing with squeaky toys … so you don’t need us to tell you how special your dog already is! But what if you wanted to take your dog to the next level?! A program called the Canine Good Citizen® encourages every dog to be a winner by promoting your dog to achieve a level of obedience at home and around the community.

What is the CGC?

The Canine Good Citizen® program, often shortened to CGC, was developed by the American Kennel Club in 1989 as a way to foster good behavior in every dog and promote active, responsible owners to guide their dogs and provide a good quality of life by taking care of their health, exercise, and training. The certification process supports the dog/owner relationship by encouraging a strong bond of communication between the two. The owner must sign the Responsible Dog Owner’s Pledge before taking the test with their dog. This pledge ensures that owners are responsible for their canine and will take care of them in a number of ways to guarantee the best quality of life for their pooch. The test is then taken with your special pal. Functions that must be performed on the test are the following:

• Accepting a friendly stranger.
• Sitting politely for petting.
• Allowing basic grooming procedures.
• Walking on a loose lead.
• Walking through a crowd.
• Sitting and lying down on command and staying in place.
• Coming when called.
• Reacting appropriately to another dog.
• Reacting appropriately to distractions.
• Calmly enduring supervised separation from the owner.

How Can Your Dog Become CGC Certified?

If you would like your dog to become CGC certified, Morris K9 Campus offers a workshop designed to prepare you and your dog for the Canine Good Citizen® test. We provide you with the A.K.C Canine Good Citizen Program’s Participant’s Handbook, an overview of all 10 exercises on the test, practice of the behaviors needed to pass the test, and a checklist to help you realize when your dog is ready to take the test. The Canine Good Citizen Workshop is being offered on Sunday, June 26 from 11am-2pm. This workshop is recommended for dogs that have completed Level 4 of the Morris K9 Campus training program, dogs who have a good foundation in obedience from another training school and have a desire to pass the CGC test, and students who wish to become better acquainted with CGC and how to pass it. Click here to enroll.

Help your dog be the best he or she can be!