Kate's K-9'sFieldwork
Katie Gallagher working a yellow Labrador in an east-side class.
All classes

Canine Good Citizen

Manners you can take into the world.

Four weeks on the east side in Penfield and Macedon. Three weeks on the test. Week four is Testing Day — CGC, CGCA, CGCU, and RocDog therapy dog, with Calm Life Canine.

Dogs six months and older. Vaccines and a clean fecal report before the first night. Reactive dogs start in private lessons; group is not always the right room.

Reserve CGCTest nights

Titles

CGC, then community, urban, and therapy.

CGC

Canine Good Citizen

The foundation title. Ten items of public manners — stranger, petting, grooming, walk, crowd, sit and down, recall, other dogs, distraction, and a three-minute sit with someone else holding the leash.

CGCA

Community Canine

Advanced CGC. The dog already holds a CGC. The test leaves the ring: wait at a table, loose-leash in a real crowd, food, a door, a stay with more going on. Community, not a pattern.

CGCU

Urban CGC

City manners. Doorways without pulling, a busy sidewalk, horns and bikes, mixed surfaces, stairs or an elevator. A recent Kate's K-9's cycle finished with a CGCU title.

RocDog

Therapy dog

Katie is an approved RocDog trainer. The same four weeks can prepare a team for therapy visits — hospitals, schools, care homes. Seven new certified teams came out of one cycle with Calm Life Canine.

The ten items

What the CGC actually asks.

  1. 01Accepting a friendly stranger
  2. 02Sitting politely for petting
  3. 03Appearance and grooming
  4. 04Out for a walk — loose leash
  5. 05Walking through a crowd
  6. 06Sit and down on cue, stay in place
  7. 07Coming when called
  8. 08Reaction to another dog
  9. 09Reaction to distraction
  10. 10Supervised separation

The dog must pass all ten. Equipment is a buckle or martingale collar, a six-foot leash, a brush, and a long line for stay and recall. Katie runs the items in the room, then on test night.

Four weeks

Prep, then the night that counts.

  1. Week 01

    The picture

    Friendly strangers, polite petting, appearance and grooming. The dog learns that a new person is not an event.

  2. Week 02

    The walk

    Loose leash, crowds, sit and down on cue, stay, come when called. Control that holds when the room is moving.

  3. Week 03

    The world

    Other dogs, distractions, supervised separation — and the RocDog therapy items if that is the path. The dog practices being left and coming back to work.

  4. Week 04

    Test night

    CGC, and CGCA or CGCU when the team is ready. Therapy-dog testing with RocDog on the same cycle. Sign-up posts on Facebook as Testing Day.

Ready for the next cycle.

Testing days post on Facebook first. Reserve a class, or start private if the dog is not ready for the room.

Reserve CGCStart private