MYAAAAA!!!!! DOWN!!

Yesterday evening we loaded up Mya and headed down to St. Charles to the Kane County Fair grounds where the Fox Valley Dog Training Club held testing for the American Kennel Club’s (AKC) Canine Good Citizen (CGC) certification. Wendy, Mya and I walked into a world that was as strange to us as Ron Santo’s understanding of the Cubs season. I understand that there was just recently another "cash for clunkers" deal but I digress.

The county building where the testing was held was a buzz with every size and shape dog that the AKC has registered and some they won’t register including beautiful Golden Retrievers, Greyhounds, Rotweilers, Dschshund, Poodles, mutts to mention a few. We never have been to a shindig like this so I ended up spending the first ten minutes at the wrong table before I was told to go over to another one. Seams there were sever test and or competitions going on at the same time. We got to the correct table and confirmed that all the proper paper work was /had been filed properly. At its peak there had to be 150 dogs in this one building along with there handlers and their supporters. One very noisy, busy place. Other dogs were being put through there paces. Regretfully the battrie in my camra died so Wendy was only able to get a couple of shots. Both Wendy and I were very impressed with the other dogs and how well they had been trained. We were a bit set back watching how some handles rewarded there dogs. As the dog did as he or she was instructed the handler would spit something, a treat we found out later, out of their mouth and the dog would happily snap it up. I tried to get Wendy to put a dog treat into her mouth and spit at Mya but she, Wendy, refused no matter how hard I tried to convince her that the tester required this act in order to get Mya certified.

Mya behaved herself well from the beginning but as the night went on we could tell that all she wanted to do was get off the leash and run around and make a few friends and or go to Wendy out in the audience. I realized that this was most likely the longest time Mya had ever been on a leash at one time. The testing (for CGC) started out with ten of us in a small rink while six or seven other rinks started there testing and or competition.

Basic commands were observed, sit stay, walking and greeting the tester to see how your dog handled meeting strangers. Right, as if being in a building milling around for thirty minutes with 100 other handlers and their dogs waiting for the testing to begin was not test enough you had to walk up and great the tester. Mya lunged at the testers throat.. just kidding… there were two test where I thought she would have difficulty, while on a leash she does better at not jumping up but still does on occasion. I’m happy to report that she stayed down the whole time. I had to hand Mya over to a young girl sitting in the corner of the rink and walk away out of site for three minutes. Then Mya had to be on a twenty foot leash and stay, sitting, while I walked to the end of the leash turn around and returned then go back half way and call her.

Well about an hour and a half after we started it became official, Mya has been certified by the AKC as a “Canine Good Citizen”! Well on her way too becoming a Therapy Dog.