When our puppies reach the age of a year and have down their basic commands, some of us start to wonder how we could further their training. Sometimes owners are interested in agility, advanced obedience or therapy work. Canine Good Citizen is a great place to start to continue a dogs training so that they are polite and have good manners in our communities and homes. When training continues with our dogs, we keep them mentally alert and living longer as well as growing our leadership role with them.

The Canine Good Citizen National testing program was set up by the AKC  to test dogs and their owners on their responsibility and good manners. CGC consists of 10 individual tests:

1. Accepting a friendly stranger
2. Sitting politely for petting
3. Appearance and grooming
4. Walking on a loose leash
5. Walking through a crowd
6. Sit and down on command while staying in place
7. Coming when called
8. Reaction to another dog
9. Reacting to a distraction( or not reacting)
10. Supervised separation

Most of the above occurrences are faced by a dog and their owner in their everyday life. A polite dog should exhibit the appropriate behavior for each of these moments. There is no doubt that CGC is the right direction to take toward a building block for more advanced training and a good relationship with your dog. Any time spent training builds a well balanced dog through providing respect and trust.

Charleston Dog Training Club provides all levels training. As a club we like to start a puppy in our Basics class and then move on to STAR Puppy. When a puppy or dog has conquered these levels he will be well prepared to move on to a Beginner Novice or CGC class. All dogs mixed or purebred are welcome to participate. Remember, there is nothing like those seconds you and your dog connect, and we humans speak dog.