Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As someone said, CGC is not a measure of how much you love your dog or not, although I'd say that anyone who took the time to getting the CGC probably most likely loves their dog and is a responsible dog owner as well. It's nice to have a well behaved dog who doesn't pull, knows to sit politely while you talk to a neighbor down the street, and jump up on guests who come into your home. Just simple things that make the dog a nice companion to have around. Not much different from kids who behave as opposed to kids who misbehave, sometimes just for attention. The training also helps you become a better owner/trainer because it teaches the importance of consistency, and raises awareness in the owner of the elements that help build a bond. The CGC is as much for the owner as it is for the dog, since they're a team and they should work well together outside the home or inside the home. Each one knows what's expected of the other, which is comforting to the dog and builds a sense of security. Dogs like limits, and structure, and pattern, and they like knowing what the limits are ALL the time, not just sometimes. "Sometimes" builds insecurity and confusion. We need to remember that dogs are very much like toddlers, and while some dogs want to please the owner more than others (often breed or experience dependent), training is a way of communicating with them to let them know what their place is in the pack, and a way to build the bond.
Those people who are serious about going on with training will find that just about all training classes require that your dog has had basic training, which is most often CGC, as that's a good way of measuring what level your dog is at, which means he/she can go on to successfully complete the next level. We always want a dog to be successful, and we want to finish any training session on a fun and positive note.
So, those of you who don't want to get the titles or don't want to bother (yes, it takes time and effort) please don't look down on the "title". It's really just a report card, nothing more than a passing grade in, say, puppy kindergarden or first grade.
Katie1 and PitBullMommie, I tried to give you points, but can't - PitBullMommie you are exactly right! Do it for the dogs!
Oh, yes - to answer the question - Both our adults got their CGC's as young dogs - one at 6 mos, the other at about 1 year.
The puppy will be training for it soon.
Wonderful post! I agree with everything you said!
Like I said, our pups are well trained, but there are definitely things to work on, such as the separation anxiety and not getting overly excited when people come over to our house. I think there are always things to work on and to improve. I am already very proud of our pups though! When we go out, say, to the pet store or the vet, we always have people tell us that our dogs are so sweet and so well behaved! I think that a lot of people are really surprised that "pit bulls" can be good and friendly! lol! But yeah, us doing the whole CGC thing has absolutely nothing to do with the title (if it can even be called that ). It really has more to do with us working with our dog to achieve something together and bond. I also think it will help people to realize that APBTs are not a bad breed. We have trained are our dogs, they know all of the basic stuff and some tricks! lol! And our dogs are very well socialized. We still work on training with them pretty much everyday, even if it's stuff they already know. I think that it's a good way to spend some quality time with our fur babies, and it's good for them to be mentally challenged and earn their treats! I just think that getting them their CGC will be good for all of us. It will be a challenge, it will be fun and it will give us something to work for.
I think people have a right to say if they are or are not going to get it.
I don't think you need it to prove you love your dog or that if you don't have it you should love your dog less, its just about showing that the dog does have a good temperament. Its a personal choice.
But it can be helpful. You can get insurance a lot easier if you APBT (or other blacklist breed) has a CGC. Some will not normally insure you with a Pit Bull, but if that dog has a CGC they will.
Oh, I didn't know that it would actually make a difference for insurance? That's good to know. That's also a nice bonus! lol!
My GSD has a CGC. She did perfect during the test. She heels and keeps eye contact and all those things during the training and in the testing environment. But outside of the training facility, if there is an rat running by, she will chase the rat no matter what... And CGC is very easy to obtain for us. I am proud of her! One more thing, my GSD loves ladies. During the test, a lady with a happy voice was holding her which I hid for three minutes. My GSD was busy at kissing the lady. If the judge was a man, I m not sure we can pass.
Aww! Sounds like you have a great fur baby! I hope our dogs can pass! They are well trained and extremely friendly, so really the only things I'm worried about is them being overly friendly and going crazy when I have to leave for the supervised separation. But we have plenty of time to work with them before we actually do this.
Oh, I didn't know that it would actually make a difference for insurance? That's good to know. That's also a nice bonus! lol!
Yeah it can, like with renting. It depends on the company. I remember someone else had the CGC for their 2 Pit Bulls so that they could get the home owners insurance. I don't remember which company it was though. I'm not sure on those companies where you need extra liability for owning a Pit Bull if it'd make a difference if they do it that way or not?
My dogs don't get past the first few steps..but they are mostly beagles that came from bad situations so I'm pretty happy they are housebroken at this point.
My lab has hers...but she's a lab, much easier to train and I've had her since she was a puppy.
I spoke to an insurance rep who laughed and said that the CGC means nothing to insurance 'carriers', and it's not a factored in at all. I tend to believe him since he's a close friend and deals with numerous carriers on a daily basis and has for decades. Some carriers will insure with higher rates and others just won't take the risk.
Personally I DO NOT want my dogs to be able to be handled by anyone but me, that would defeat the purpose of what my dogs are trained to be, and anxiety when I'm out of sight in a strange place is a very good thing, and certainly not considered weak nerves as far as the pros in the field are concerned.
Remember, it's all conditional on the way YOU want your dog to be and the training put into your dog.
I think if you feel you need to get the CGC certificate then get it and enjoy your dog.
Mine would never pass. My male can tell me if a leaf falls from a tree two counties away and my female goes after anything with wheels. Wheelchairs and walkers would get her going
I'm sorry, but this comment just made my day. Thanks for the good laugh. That was great.
I'm a little behind on this thread, but I'd like to say I know I'd consider it for dogs. PBM, I think it's a great idea. especially for your pups. They'd do very well, and it's good reflection on them and the owners. Don't popo therapy training just yet. It may be a great way to get involved and show what Pitties can do. I hear it's very rewarding too.
I spoke to an insurance rep who laughed and said that the CGC means nothing to insurance 'carriers', and it's not a factored in at all. I tend to believe him since he's a close friend and deals with numerous carriers on a daily basis and has for decades. Some carriers will insure with higher rates and others just won't take the risk.
Personally I DO NOT want my dogs to be able to be handled by anyone but me, that would defeat the purpose of what my dogs are trained to be, and anxiety when I'm out of sight in a strange place is a very good thing, and certainly not considered weak nerves as far as the pros in the field are concerned.
Remember, it's all conditional on the way YOU want your dog to be and the training put into your dog.
I think if you feel you need to get the CGC certificate then get it and enjoy your dog.
Quote:
I spoke to an insurance rep who laughed and said that the CGC means nothing to insurance 'carriers', and it's not a factored in at all. I tend to believe him since he's a close friend and deals with numerous carriers on a daily basis and has for decades. Some carriers will insure with higher rates and others just won't take the risk.
I didn't think that having your dogs CGC certified effected insurance, like I said earlier. That's not an issue for us, we love our dogs as if they were our children and having to pay more expensive insurance to have them is something we have never minded at all. I'm sure that having your dogs CGC certified would help some in some places, but again, that's not something that even crossed our minds when we decided that we wanted to do this.
Quote:
Personally I DO NOT want my dogs to be able to be handled by anyone but me, that would defeat the purpose of what my dogs are trained to be, and anxiety when I'm out of sight in a strange place is a very good thing, and certainly not considered weak nerves as far as the pros in the field are concerned.
I'm the same way, I don't want anyone besides me or my husband handling our dogs, but that's just because they are my fur babies and I'm weired about things like that! lol! You said that you don't want your dogs handled by anyone but you because that would defeat the purpose of what your dogs were trained to be? If you don't mind me asking, what were your dogs trained to be? To me, if someone else did handle our dogs, I wouldn't like it too much, but it wouldn't be a huge deal either. We haven't trained our dogs to be anything more than wonderful, well behaved, friendly, family companions. That's not something I was worried about during the testing for CGC anyway. I was reading on the AKC website about all of the different tests and what all we will have to do, and the only time that someone besides me would handle my dogs would be for the supervised separation. At least that's what it sounds like? I don't think it's something where we go in and other people will handle our dogs to tests them? It says that the CGC program stresses responsible ownership for owners and basic good manners for dogs. That, to me, sounds like they want to see us handle our dogs.
As far as the anxiety goes, that is not a good thing at all! That is very unhealthy for a dog, it puts so much stress on them. Of course we want our dogs to want to be with us all of the time, but at the same time, we don't want them so stressed out that they make themselves sick. Our dogs have horrible separation anxiety, and no, it's not good at all. All three of our pups will just go nuts when we go somewhere without them! They will chew and/ or eat everything they possibly can, they broke the glass top to our table, they chewed up cabinets, they have tried to dig through the front door, etc. Now we put all three of them in their crates if we have to go somewhere without them, which isn't very often, and we are never gone more than a few hours if we can't take our pups with us. Our two female APBTs, Destiny and Jayda, are okay when they are in their crates. They will whine and bark as we are leaving, but they will go to sleep after a little while. Our male APBT, Brooklyn, is still really bad though, even when he's in his crate. There have been a couple times that I came home to blood all over the place because he cut his face all up trying to get out of his crate and then one time he chewed on his tail until it started to bleed! The one thing tha we really need to work on with our pups is their separation anxiety, besides that, they are great dogs. The girls haven't really got any better or any worse. We have had Destiny since she was 6 weeks, now she's 10 months, and she has always have pretty bad separation anxiety. We got Jayda when she was 7 1/2 months, now she's 1 year, and she has had pretty bad separation anxiety the whole time we have had her as well. I think that a lot of Jayda's problem is because of what she went through before we got her. Brooklyn is a whole different story though, we got Brooklyn when he was 8 weeks, now he's 1 year 7 months, and his separation anxiety has just gotten worse and worse. I also think that the fact that I have been a stay at home wife/ pet parent the entire time we have owned our dogs has a lot to do with it. They are hardly ever left alone and it has always been that way. Anyway, it is normal and healthy for a dog to miss it's owner when they are gone and to want to be with their owner, but it's not normal and it's not healthy for a dog to have separation anxiety.
Quote:
Remember, it's all conditional on the way YOU want your dog to be and the training put into your dog.
I think if you feel you need to get the CGC certificate then get it and enjoy your dog.
Like I said, all we want is for our dogs to be wonderful companions! They are already wonderful companions, they are great dogs! It's not that they need to be trained, they are already well trained and socialized, we just think it would be a fun way to spend quality time with our pups and work towards something together. We have also decided that we want to get our pups into some things, maybe weight pulling or agility, we aren't sure what yet, but we thought that getting them their CGCs would be a fun thing to do before we got into something else. We really want to do it for fun more than anything.
I don't feel that I need to get the CGC certificates for our dogs. I really couldn't care any less about the actual certificate, and we definitely don't need to do this. Again, we want to do this because we feel that it would be a fun, productive thing to do, that would be good for all of us.
I hear ya pbmommie. The more you can do with the dogs the better the bond. My dogs are best left aloof though they are very friendly.
We train weekly for defense of me. This is one way we bond.
Deploy though car window to save me when the see aggression displayed toward me, or jump up and over a car to get to where I'm being beaten & mugged, (my 2 are working as a tag team) or someones hiding in a building where we train and we do inside in the dark, they hear noises and go berserk - they get that massive adrenalin dump and begin to shake widely in anticipation of a fight. They have to work up A' frame through long pits, through numerous obstacles, through a pool.
It's all very interesting to watch though I'm always sore from holding off 75lbs of dogs, and the my other 85lb'der when we work agitation. From my back to my shoulders it hard work on me. They're having fun and I'll end up in a body cast.
I take them on the street and they are lovey, kissy machines. They are very vlevel headed.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think there are always things to work on and to improve. I am already very proud of our pups though! When we go out, say, to the pet store or the vet, we always have people tell us that our dogs are so sweet and so well behaved! 
But yeah, us doing the whole CGC thing has absolutely nothing to do with the title (if it can even be called that 
). It really has more to do with us working with our dog to achieve something together and bond. I also think it will help people to realize that APBTs are not a bad breed. We have trained are our dogs, they know all of the basic stuff and some tricks! lol! 
Our dogs have horrible separation anxiety, and no, it's not good at all. All three of our pups will just go nuts when we go somewhere without them! They will chew and/ or eat everything they possibly can, they broke the glass top to our table, they chewed up cabinets, they have tried to dig through the front door, etc. Now we put all three of them in their crates if we have to go somewhere without them, which isn't very often, and we are never gone more than a few hours if we can't take our pups with us. 
