I just got off the phone with the local evaluator for the Canine Good Citizen test. Amazingly, they do classes and testing both in Frederick and RIGHT next to where I work 30 minutes down the road. The evaluator was very helpful, and answered all of the questions I had.
As it turns out, Ferguson does not need to perform a "down" from a "sit", and I can break free, walk in a circle, and tell him to do one or the other. Hurray!
On Monday evenings, they hold class at the dog park near my work (of course, the one day a week when I don't work), and Ferguson and I have been invited to go for the last few minutes of class to get used to the environment where the test will be held. This is a very good suggestion, I think, and one we will take advantage of.
As of right now, my only real concern of what he can and cannot do is the supervised separation. He's not allowed to make any vocalizations in my absence at all. It concerns me probably because it is the hardest thing to practice, and isn't something we can really do here at home too much, with the exception of me tethering him to a tree and going out of site. Having a body stay with him makes all the difference for a dog like Ferguson, but is again difficult to practice. I think I will convince Eric to go with me to practice and will use him as a body first, someone he is familiar with, and see how he does. In the past, he would whine if I just left the room...so it may be a little while before he masters this part of the test (and of course, it's the last part you do, naturally, just like the parallel parking on a driver's test). *sighs*
In any case, I feel really good about the rest of the test. We'll try a few rehearsals and see how it goes...
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