GAP hounds have taken over Upper Hutt's Canine Good Citizen class with six hounds competing for their Bronze award. Area Co-ordinator, Tania Harris, is keeping us up-to-date with their progress and imparts some top training tips along the way.
Syd's greasy sit
Week One
Setting the Standard - it's the first class of our Canine Good Citizen course and I am pretty nervous that Sam (Gridiron) will be the worst behaved dog and more interested in doing anything else than any commands I give. We have been practicing sit and down and he's a backyard champion at those but in front of other dogs and other owners will he be quite so responsive€¦.??? And to top it off we are greeted by the leader of the club calling all us greyhound owners aside to tell us about how awesome Lucy was at the Masters Games over the weekend and that our dogs have no excuses... No pressure Sam!
But the good news is that there are other greyhounds in our class to have fun with. We have Ernie with Leroy (Soho Prince) and Jacqui with Sasha (unraced) and Kirsty with Syd (Syd Phoenix). Also in the class is a gorgeous puppy like Dalmation who's name I am still trying to remember€¦ and Mia the Dobie/Shepherd cross who has been doing the classes for a while now and is our role model of awesomeness!
The first class is about seeing where everyone is at with their skills so whilst Sascha runs through her bevy of tricks to see what will earn her the treat, and Syd, sits with a lifted paw (see photo) otherwise known as the greasy sit to get his treat, and Leroy recalls like a champion, Sam stubbornly refuses to go down steps, wanders off during the recall and saunters behind me on the walk€¦ so we have set the standard€¦€¦ nice and low€¦! Home to do lots of practice!
Training tip: use wet food like dog roll as if dry food crumbles when they bite it you will lose the dogs attention as they go hunting for the crumbs on the ground!