Thursday, July 2, 2009

Canine Good Citizen! Therapy dog!!

Hooray! in a double coup tonight, Harvey banged out his CGC and TDI certification!

I took him and Beckett hiking on the Metacomet trail earlier (a fool's errand since it's been raining for forty days and forty nights and the mosquitoes are out in full force). We covered the part between Route six in Farmington and Plainville Of course while we were up on the top of the mountain the thunder started rumbling in the distance. IMG00183-20090702-1456.jpg
I debated taking refuge in Will Warren's den ever so briefly, because I had no idea how long it would take to get to the car, but i knew it wouldn't be short. We beat the rain though, thank God.
(No, really, THANK GOD!! We had a hell of a storm for the rest of the afternoon into the night!)

The boys napped after their hike.

So, Harvey's whole class has been working towards the CGC together, but I am extra proud of Harvey for several reasons:

1) There were two strange (SMALL) dogs in the room- Harvey totally ignored them after a few interested looks (this is the dog who used to lose his mind every time there was a new dog in our drop-in class- especially a small dog or anything bully)

2) Three of the dogs were afraid of and barking and growling at one of the members of the crowd- our trainer took a moment to try to introduce them to him, but he was pretty awkward and not a dog person for sure, so the dogs were REALLY riled for a while, Harvey was calm- not cool as a cucumber, but when he started thinking about getting involved a simple "sit" and "watch me" brought him right back to earth!

3) During his stay, while i was walking across the room away from him one of the kids who were there for the therapy test ran by him, passing about a foot in front of him and he didn't break his stay- didn't even budge!!!

4) there must have been a full moon tonight, because several of the dogs bombed items on the test that are usually easy ones for them. each of the dogs in this class has passed the whole test several times over during the course of the class. our trainer, in light of that fact, allowed some dogs do-overs when they blew an item she's seen them ace repeatedly. -not Harvey! he aced every item!!!

I am so so so so proud of my boy, there were nine dogs taking the test and harvey was definitely in the top three in his performance tonight. he's come so far from the dog who couldn't get through a class without leaving the room six or seven times to come back to earth. -- he was SO reactive!

we celebrated with a trip to Friendly's for a scoop of vanilla topped with peanutbutter sauce and Reeces Pieces

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and then he partied some more by gutting a hedgehog
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woohoo! CGC!!

3 comments:

  1. Congrats! I was so happy when Marge passed her CGC, though she is too nervous to be a therapy dog.

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  2. Congrats on passing the CGC and TDI! I'm hoping to take the CGC test in the next few months with my Golden Retriever, Milly. I am so glad I found your blog!

    As a fellow dog lover I wanted to let you know about a giveaway taking place on my blog http://www.thewetnose.blogspot.com

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  3. I'm glad I found your blog as well. Been working in therapy work for quite a while. Congrats! I know the work it takes.

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