*You can only take this course if you've finished Basic Obedience and Intermediate*

Canine Good Citizen (CGC) is a ten-skill training program that focuses on teaching good manners and obedience in any situation. This is a good program to choose if you want your dog to behave politely both indoors and outdoors as well as be polite when strangers come to greet you. The AKC created this program because they believe that all dogs can be good dogs, meaning any breed/mixed breed can participate. CGC also lays the foundation for other courses such as agility, tracking, or other performance events.

What are the benefits CGC?

There are lots of benefits to CGC training! You can create a huge bond with your pet and also get your pet to understand you and the outside world a little better. Your dog will perfect skills such as down, stay, sit in any area and be confident when walking your dog through crowds or areas with heavy distractions. This CGC title is also a prerequisite for other courses such as therapy dog training, service dog training, advanced courses, etc. According to the AKC website, your dog can also get a CGC discount with some homeowners' insurances.

In this test, you will be tested on 10 items.

• Accepting a Friendly Stranger
• Sitting Politely For Petting
• Appearance and Grooming
• Out For A Walk
• Walking Through A Crowd
• Sit, Down, and Stay
• Coming When Called (Recall)
• Reaction to Another Dog
• Reaction To Distractions
• Supervised Separation

This course will cover these items and help prepare you to take the CGC test! The items I put in each lesson are generally tested together, but that depends on your evaluator. Things that will make you fail the test immediately would be:

• Popping your dog's collar.
• If your dog bites or snaps at another dog or human.
• Urinating or defecating during the test
• Physically forcing your dog into a position
• Yelling "ah-ah" or "don't"

In order to get your dog in the program, you would have to find a trainer that is CGC approved. You can find a list of trainers on their website here: https://webapps.akc.org/cgc-evaluator/#/