My lab will be 15 weeks at the start of the Novice one. I've never done formal training like this before so just wondering if anyone has any first hand experience.
Forgot to add, we're in the Puppy one but there's no formal test at the end of it, just an overall assessment of how you've done I think? I assume the Bronze - Gold are more "hardcore". Of course that being relative to what you consider hardcore
We did the Bronze. Dead easy. Although our trainers worked us up into a frenzy, making us think it's so difficult! No treats allowed. Our judge was very kind (much kinder than the trainers) and it seems (in retrospect) that the Bronze was simply to make sure your dog was friendly to people and unreactive to dogs, and obeyed a down stay at a distance. We did it years ago when Snowie was just under one years old. It's a nice milestone to achieve. I am sure you can download the judging checklist and try it out at home.
We have passed the Bronze and are working towards Silver and Gold, our dog club is so relaxed it has taken us a year to get this far, mostly because there's no pressure and we spend half the time on the floor with our dogs having a laugh at all the funny things they do, not really the place for high achievers. I've heard of some classes that can be quite intimidating though. The tests are generally about training dog doggy manners rather than competition obedience. Waits and stays, recall, walking to heal, going through doors safely and walking amongst people and other dogs. Silver and Gold include longer stays, walking safely along roads, getting into a car and going to bed. All good useful things that should help you and your dog be happy and safe in most day to day situations.
I've done all three. The test requirements are slightly different in each country, but you can look them up on the internet. I'm in the UK and it's all basic obedience - loose lead walking, recall, calm behaviour around other dogs and people etc. The silver and gold levels include walking around town and the gold is tested outside, mostly off lead. If you like your club, why not give it a try?
We did bronze and silver. Meg nailed them both on her first birthday !! I think they are great classes with tasks that set your dog up for life. Meg is a super star and I believe these classes really helped. Have a Google.....the tasks are available on line. We didn't carry on a do a Gold as we had got her where we needed to be in terms of a wonderful family pet. She's just over 2 now....we may go back and do gold one day
I enjoy them. My pups have all passed bronze and silver, I didn't have them quite long enough to go for gold. I like the way they keep you on track with basic obedience Treats are allowed during the training, just not for the test. I make sure I have a nicely smelly hand for the test lol!
Here is a link to the site - http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/training/good-citizen-dog-training-scheme/
Ha ha ,the trainer at the group I joined in the Summer said to scrape your nail down some really smelly blue cheese before the tests! I did the classes for bronze and silver when I was back in the UK for the Summer,my dog was nearly 4 and we'd done Dubai's version of them already but I do enjoy always doing some kind of class with Dexter.Practice around other dogs in always so valuable for us.We had to come home before the tests though ,our classes had a finite number of 8 before the test.We also had to demonstrate a trick for the trainer at the end of every class ...thankfully we had a few in the bag as I didn't have a lot of extra time to focus on that !
I would recommend the Kennel Club courses despite the fact Ripple has been unable to achieve the bronze. My previous two labs passed gold and we really enjoyed the classes and I felt they both got loads out of it. For Ripple it just hasn't been the right sort of training, he's struggled to concentrate and has been unable to 'stay' with all the distractions. However I may well go back to it once he's older and has settled a bit. I think it's definitely worth going even if you don't carry it through to silver and gold, as Jes72 said it gives a good foundation in doggy manners.
Thanks all, sounds worthwhile I haven't been to our local club, I didn't even think to look into one Regarding having your hands smell like food, you can be that close to your dog? I've been training him while standing up and he's probably a good two feet from my hands, as I assumed I should be moving away from the close-up luring positions?
When it was mentioned in our class it was in the context of heel work,a guy was struggling with his very skippy working cocker and she suggested it might help......cheating of course of which I would have had no part
Ah gotcha! I was like "how...", now that makes sense I thought I was missing some insider pro trick Our trainer mentioned spaniels are difficult with the heel walking, so maybe it's ok for a little help
It works, even for recall - the idea that you 'may' have a treat is enough. We do 'random' treating anyway, once they know the command.
