I am a good citizen!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Today I have great news!! I passed the Foundation level of Canine Good Citizen! Can you believe it? A half year ago no one would have thought I would.

We did it!

Last November I had a couple of private training sessions with a renown dog behaviorist, Flip of Flip's Top Dog, because my reaction to other dogs was so bad that I even barked at dogs walking on the other side of a road with lots of traffic. At that time my friend Honey the Great Dane and her human observed our training and gave us some helpful advice too!

Flip's advice was to strengthen my heelwork, and we spent most of the time during the training sessions for practising heelwork with or without distractions. Of course, there is no miracle that can change a dog's behaviour instantly, so I continued to practise heelwork with my mum after that.

In addition to practising heelwork, my Mum and I did lots of attention exercise: i.e. Getting praises and rewards for looking at Mum as soon as I find a dog in the street (This exercise is called 'Look at That! game' in "Control Unleashed" by Leslie Mcdevitt).

In the result of our collaborative hard work, my heelwork improved a lot, which was proven in an obedience ribbon rial that I entered for the first time, as I reported in this post.

As my heelwork improved, so did my reaction to other dogs, but not as significantly as my heelwork. When I attended the first class of the eight-week Canine Good Citizen course at Manukau Dog Training Club two months ago, I barked at my classmates so badly that I was told to lie down under my Mum's legs while she was sitting on a chair with other human attendees. According to our trainer, putting the dog in a Down Stay is helpful for controlling dogs barking.

At home we did a lot of Down Stay exercises. For example, Mum placed a dog bed under her desk and made me stay laying down on it while she was working.

Also, Mum thought that I needed to meet more new dogs, but in our daily walks in the neighbourhood we don't meet many dogs and I already know most of the few dogs that we meet. So, for several days before the assessment, Mum and I went to many different places, such as St Heliers, Kohimaraka, and Mission Bay beaches and Cornwall Park, to practise ignoring other dogs.

Mum even used aroma therapy to relax me. She found information about dog aroma therapy on a Japanese website of her friend's natural soap and cosmetics shop Ringa Ringa, The Natural Skincare Co. (209 Parnell Road, Parnell, Auckland) and made special aroma oil (10ml of Sweet Almond Oil, 2 drops of Lavender Angustifolia, and 1 drop of Ylang Ylang 1st) for me. She massaged me with the oil every time before we went out for a walk. (Photo on the right: Mint and Ringa Ringa's canine staff, Anko & Kurosawa)

Being patted by a friendly stranger

On the assessment day she massaged me with the oil before entering the assessment venue, but the meeting-a-stranger-and-their-dog exercise was the third from the last in the 17 exercises in the assessment, so the aroma had gone by then. Nevertheless, I did pretty well in the exercise, walking nicely toward a stranger and her dog and staying beside Mum with my tail wagging, although I got to bark once - Yes, just once! - as soon as I started walking after meeting the new dog. (According to the rules of the assessment, excessive barking is not allowed, which means some barking may be permissible.)

Meeting a stranger and her dog

Another exercise I almost failed was staying tied on lead with the handler in sight for five minutes. As you know, I hate staying alone. So, I just couldn't help whining from the beginning and I barked weakly a couple of times trying to call Mum back. But, after Mum said "Stay", giving me a scary face, I gave in and decided to stay until she came back to me.

This time five humans and their dogs, including my Mum and me, attended the assessment and all of us passed!

Congratulations to everyone!

For those who want to sit for the Canine Good Citizen Foundation assessment, the following exercises are included in the assessment (copied from NZKC website):

1. Appearance, handling and responsibility
  a. Responsibility and care
  b. Public cleanliness and identification
  c. Examination of the dog by handler
  d. Grooming and inspection of the dog by the assessor
2. Food manners
  a. Person eating
  b. Dog eating
3. Accepting a friendly stranger
4. Accepting being patted by a friendly stranger
5. Walk on lead through a door/gate in a controlled manner
6. Return to handler
7. Walk on lead
8. Controlled walk through people and distractions
  a. Pedestrian traffic
  b. Distractions
9. Stay tied on lead
10. Meeting a stranger and their dog
11. Supervised separation
12. Playing with the dog


Here is a footage video that My Dad made so that you can see how I did in the assessment (If you can't view it here, click here).

Now I can declare that I am a Good Citizen, can't I?