My basenjis passed the Canine Good Citizen test this morning! And then, since we were on a roll, we took, and passed, the advanced test, Community Canine.
They both had to re-take an element of the second test - Zef was disqualified during the loose-leash walking since she stopped to pee (!), and Epi broke her recall past a distraction. It wasn’t the distraction itself (the tester’s bag) but another dog romping about just outside the ring. But they both redeemed themselves on their second chance.
The hardest part for them both was probably the supervised separation - the tester takes the leash and the owner leaves their sight for three minutes. I think they both whined a little bit, which is allowable - they’ve had problems with separation anxiety in the past, so I was very proud that they can manage this now!
It was a bit awkward switching between dogs, too, but my husband MaxTheVool helped out. Here’s a picwith their blue ribbons! That’s Epilogue CDCA on the left, and Zephyr CDCA on the right!
Hooray for two lovely and smart pooches! And their owners too!
I’m hoping my youngest sister will start working on Canine Good Citizen training with her schnauzer soon. He’s about six or seven months old now and I think he would be an ideal candidate for this. Sis was thinking about taking him to nursing homes and such. I hope she still is. Is that what you and your husband plan to do too?
The Therapy Dog program starts with a different test, which our tester said we’d all be sure to pass. But I don’t know how into it Zef and Epi would be. We mostly just did the CDC tests to have a goal, and prove to the naysayers that basenjis ARE trainable
They’re nine years old, though! We did the test with a 1.5 yr old Yorkie, and a 6 month old Labrador!
Hey, congratulations to your doggies! My dog also passed CNC but did not get a ribbon as you have to buy them, although he does have a certificate.
However, he needs to go through this again, because his training has slipped, or something, and he needs to work on passing another dog and sitting politely for petting by a stranger. (He really needs the latter.) It’s been 5 years.
But good work. Also, Basenjis are so cute. They look pleased.
Congrats on the blue ribbons for two beautiful and talented dogs! But hey, they should be wearing those ribbons, draped from their collars on their brilliant white chests!
I was certain that my Rottie, Cedar, would fail the the supervised separation test. She LOVED to play with children with basketballs – it was her favorite thing in all the world. So, we’re at the park for the test and, of course, over on the basketball court was a group of young kids playing with a basketball. It’s all over now, I thought.
I put her in a down-stay on the grass, dropped the leash and walked away to hide from sight behind some bushes. A minute so later, I heard the testers laughing. When the time was up, I came out of hiding to find, to my astonishment, that Cedar was exactly where I’d left her. What had they been laughing at? Cedar has laid down and rolled all the way over twice, wrapping the leash around herself. Apparently, she looked back at the leash as if surprised to see it around her, and carefully rolled back over, twice, to remove it. She’d ignored the kids and basketball completely. She passed.
kayaker, I don’t think basenjis are very good at sniffing. We play “hide the treat” sometimes and it takes AGES for them to find it. I had beagles as a girl, so maybe I’m just judging them harshly.
We did some lure coursing with them (this is not one of ours, but just to give yous guys a mental image: Dogs NSW Lure Coursing - 27 Sep 2015 - Entry 5, Basenji - YouTube) but the local(ish) org that ran it only had a tiny unfenced field, and the dogs’ recall wasn’t where I wanted it to be, at that time. Also, they’re nine now! Sprinting is hard on old ladies. Was good fun, though!
NoseWork is actually pretty cool. We started off with our GSD Kali finding my gf in the house. She’d hide somewhere simple while I sat with the dog. Then she would shout, “find me” and I would release the dog and encourage with, “find her!!” My gf would treat the dog when she was found.
This evolved into encouraging scent recognition. GF would hide outside, a few hundred yards away, behind a tree. I would make Kali smell GF’s hoodie and say, “find her, find her!” Then I’d let the dog outside. She would track the scent and find her.
Using our cell phones like walkie-talkies we have played “find me” in the woods, with Kali tracking over considerable distances.
Next step is doing this “for real” with a trainer who knows what they’re doing.
