Being the Best Citizen at Crufts

My dogs and I have in theory been following the Good Citizen Dog Scheme syllabus in training classes for quite a while now, but courtesy of an extended period where I couldn’t walk without crutches, Daisy got to take a break after her Puppy class, and as a result was about ready to take her Bronze just before Crufts. Our trainer at Ashlawn suggested we might like to take the test actually at Crufts itself, as part of the demonstration of skills that goes on in the education area.

So we sent in our application, and were rather delighted to be accepted to take our test on the Thursday. The day itself didn’t get off to a flying start when: 1. we were half an hour late (despite only living down the road from the NEC) due to an accident and missing the pre-demo/test briefing and 2. while waiting in line to go in for the first demo, Daisy expressing her disapproval at the very close proximity of an absolutely enormous GSD inviting her to play and growling a bit. Cue lots of muttered discussion from the coordinators about if there was any hint of temperamental unsoundness I couldn’t be allowed to do the demo and would have to take the dog home, and my trying to suggest that she was probably just a bit intimidated by the enormous puppy that had just socked her with a dinner-plate sized foot and that she would be fine once moving.

Part of me was ready to just pack up there and then, but I plastered a smile on, and the demo proceeded without a hitch. Daisy worked beautifully, as did all the other dogs in the ring.

Then we went for a wander round the show. In retrospect, this was probably very unfair to Daisy, as she’s only a knee-height dog, but she handled the crowds and the noise and the chaos really, really well. In fact she was super interested in everything going on, especially the food stalls that had samples laid out at dog height, ready to be tried. I ended up buying her small bags of a number of things based off which treats and foods she pulled hardest to be allowed to have!

Canidae went down well

Then back to the bench (the allocated resting area for each dog) for a quick snooze (both of us), drink (both of us) and a brush over (Daisy; my hair was beyond redemption) before the next demo. By the second time in the ring, Daisy had identified that people were looking at her, and she trotted in, tail waving and really turned on the charm for the audience, little horror that she is.  She was starting to flag though, so we had a bit of a quiet time back at the bench, and a gentle stroll around the education area…where I bumped into two handlers that I had been on Young Kennel Club camps with as a 13/14 year old. Amazing how so much time has passed, and yet shared interests give you something to just pick up on, like you only saw each other last week.

Finally: the test itself. There was a larger crowd watching this than there had been earlier in the day, and a compere who was giving running commentary on each dog which ratcheted up the stress a bit. Also a very thorough, though very nice, judge. I was pretty confident, based on the two demos, that everyone in the ring (7 of us) were going to pass but you can never be completely certain! Daisy’s test started well with her heelwork and going through the gate – didn’t put a paw wrong, and really showed off in the heelwork round the outside of the ring; she trotted along like a little Arab horse, on a nice loose lead with tail waving like she was having the best time ever (though with all those people watching she probably was). Ditto all the staying away from distractions and walking in and out of other dogs (which had been a huge challenge for her in training as she wants to go and say hello to EVERYONE). For the examination of dog and grooming I had her lie down rather than stand, as she was obviously getting tired, and by the time the judge got to us to assess whether the dog was ok being brushed and looked at in her eyes, ears, mouth, feet etc, Daisy was lying with her eyes closed, practically asleep and not really responding to having her paws prodded or her tummy brushed, except to wag her tail a bit when she heard her name. Bless.

Given her tiredness, the down stay also wasn’t a challenge, and so we successful passed our Bronze Good Citizen test at Crufts. We got the standard passing rosette, and also a rather lovely Crufts 2015 souvenir one, which was a bit special.

So I’m terribly proud of my little Daisy, and we’re going onwards and upwards to the Silver test…

The Postman's Knock

I have just had an extremely sobering experience.

The postman came today with a parcel that needed signing for. Normally when someone knocks on the door I send the dogs to their crate so that I can deal with the person at the door without having to field two inquisitive collies at the same time, but Cybi is in the teen phase at the moment and pushing his boundaries wherever he can. My front door is at the end of a narrow hallway which is quite cluttered with shoes and things that don't live anywhere else (you mean not everyone keeps their car's parcel shelf in the hallway?) and so opening the door fully while on crutches is a challenge at the best of times. It gets exponentially more complicated when you are also trying to fend off a collie who has decided that now is the right time to ignore what he's been taught AND you're trying to get to and open the door quickly because otherwise your parcel is going to get taken back to the depot.

I managed it, vaguely, and the postman took one look at me, and the oncoming collie and took a large step back. I can't blame him - there were 3300 dog attacks on posties last year and I'd imagine he was keen not to add to that statistic as my dog was blithely ignoring my commands to return to his bed - I know he's just being a pain, but the postman definitely doesn't. So balancing crutches and partially open door to prevent the dog getting out I managed to sign for my parcel. As I opened the door more fully to take said parcel, Cybi had another attempt at find out what was going on, and since I didn't have a hand free I just yelled at him. Fortunately he listened enough to back away from the door and return to the inside of the house.

At which point, I apologised to the postman and uttered the immortal words "He's just being friendly"...as Cybi and Daisy started playing in the kitchen. And as anyone who has bigger dogs will know, playing generally sounds like someone is being murdered.

"He doesn't SOUND friendly," said the postman.

"Er, no," said I. "They are just playing, though I can see how you might not come to that view if you didn't know them."

Awkward silence.

Anyway, it made me think once again about the recent change to the Dangerous Dogs Act. As of May this year, if your dog is "dangerously out of control" anywhere - whether public or private - you leave yourself at risk of prosecution. As with anything involving criminal prosecution, you have to be guilty beyond reasonable doubt, and a dog being dangerously out of control is a very grey area, but it does mean, more than ever, that responsible dog owners need to have their pets well trained and well behaved both out on walks and in the home. Attending a Good Citizen Dog Scheme class is a great place to start.
It also means (and this was what was really brought home to me this morning) that sometimes you need to think about your pets from a non dog lover's perspective. You know your dogs are just being friendly, but that random person in the park might not.

On to the Bronze

Daisy passed her Puppy Foundation course, and is now onto the Bronze Good Citizen course. I'm so proud.

It might not seem like a huge deal to most people, but given her iffy start (her foster mum said of her "Who'd have thought she was once a little Irish stray with no hope at all" when she saw her a few months ago), every time we get through a milestone like this, however small, it just reinforces how far she has come.

Being a good citizen, lesson #1

Daisy had her first "Puppy Foundation" Good citizen Dog test class on Monday. It doesn't have a test as such, unlike the higher classes, but there are certain elements that are assessed on an ongoing basis, and some that are effectively a "spot check".

Fortunately when accosted I was both carrying poo bags and Daisy's tag showed the correct information required by law (which, in case anyone is wondering, is the name and address of the owner. You don't actually have to have phone numbers on there, though it's plainly a good idea. The Kennel Club visual on the subject can be found here.)

The class itself covered walking on a loose lead, doing sit/stand/down on command and coming when called, though in a fairly informal way (the trainer holds the lead, you walk away and then call the dog to you). Daisy already has all of these things nailed through the competitive foundation classes we have been doing, though I did come up against a slight issue while doing the heelwork. I am differentiating between this class (Good Citizen Dog) and her Thursday class (Competition foundation) in terms of what I'm trying to get out of it - Monday night is having a well behaved dog who will come when she is called, walk by my side in a civilsed fashion and not behave like a nutter around the house, whereas Thursday is doggy dressage night. But as soon as there was heelwork involved, I defaulted to asking her for close and attentive heelwork, thereby completely defeating the purpose of separating out "the kind of walking to heel that's acceptable on a walk" from "competition" style working - which involves the dog working with its head up and around the handler's leg, and is therefore completely impractical for day to day activity. (See this year's Crufts highlights here for the dogs that won the Championships.) So next week, I need to remember that she is not at the class to improve her dressage, but to learn to pay just enough attention that she will continue to walk next to me if I change direction.

All of that said, the heelwork exercise we did involved going in and out of cones, and she did it beautifully, including a left-about turn around the cone at the end. Left turns in obedience can be a bit of a challenge for the dog, as they involve moving its back end independently of its front, so to have Daisy do the turn around the cone so neatly was a pleasant surprise. So she was teacher's pet this week, but next week, which involves not going to play with the other dogs and instead sitting nicely while the "decoy" is walked close I am anticipating will be more of a challenge. But that's why we're there.

The Puppy Foundation Course

Daisy is a super friendly little dog, but her unfortunate start as a rescue has left a couple of odd quirks. Chief among these is a tendency to get over excited around other dogs, and assume that they all want to play. It's quite sweet at the moment, but I do hope she grows out of it; other dogs give her the benefit of the doubt right now, but once she's a little older I'm not sure quite how that's going to work out - I can see them getting grumpy with her. So I thought I'd enrol her in the Kennel Club's Good Citizen Dog scheme to see if it helped,  as the idea behind the scheme is to end up with a happy, healthy, well-socialised member of the family. The focus is somewhat different to the requirements for competitive obedience, so hopefully by taking the two things together I can have a well-behaved dog around the house and on walks, who is also able to do the canine equivalent of dressage.

As I've possibly mentioned before, I'm incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by high standard training clubs, so I actually have a very good training club locally which focuses on the Good Citizen Scheme (Ashlawn DTC). I invited myself down to their sessions one evening and had a quick chat with the head instructor, who is not only a trainer of very many years experience, but also a member of the Academy of Dog Training and Behaviour. I was super impressed with their set up and Erica's passion for what she was doing, so signed Daisy up for the beginner's course - the Puppy Foundation Class. I then made it to the introductory class, at which we got chapter and verse on the best collars and leads, toys, grooming material...basically everything you need to keep your pup in good condition and happy. Managed to miss the first proper training session due to a short notice hospital trip, but will be there next week, complete with my little hooligan, to see how we get on.