I haven't uploaded any photos, so many of you may not even know that I HAVE a dog. He's a beautiful 1/2 Border Collie, 1/2 German Shepherd, who looks like a big tri-color Australian Shepherd! His mom's owner works, breeds and trains working border collies. Her two dogs are both black and white. Her previous litters were just black and white. This litter came out with brown in them, and she said, "These are not Border Collies". Turns out the neighbors had an un-neutered German Shepherd!

I got him almost a year and a half ago, and he's now a year and a half old. I'd always thought I wasn't a dog person (then epically failed the 'cute check' when I saw his photo), but it turns out I'm just not a people person, and when people don't train their dogs, I don't like their dogs either. But, when I found out about the Canine Good Citizen Award(CGC) (a strict obedience test that can be hard to pass) I knew that "if I ever get a dog, I want it to earn that". Well... I have a dog. And as soon as I could, we started in puppy obedience class.

It was rough. The first three weeks, he just wanted to hide under my seat! But then I took him to the dog park where he got to run and romp and play, and that did wonders for getting him to come out of his shell- or out from under my chair as the case may be. I wasn't sure he was going to pass puppy class, but he did!
He did better in intermediate class, but he was SUCH a turd the day of graduation, I didn't think he was going to pass. But he was not only one of the few dogs in that class who passed, he was one of only two who passed with a perfect score!

Finally, advanced class. We were the only ones signed up, so it got pushed back. Still, no one else signed up, so our trainer offered to do a private class. Usually, a private class is like $200 for one one hour session. We paid the usual $110 and got 4 one hour sessions! Oddly enough, he already knew half the stuff she was supposed to teach us, so we just worked on fine tuning things like making him stay with lots of distractions around, and sitting politely while people petted him, and heeling more consistently. And we played lots of games, including things like making him jump a 3 foot barrier, catch his ball, find the treat under one of three bowls, ring a bell, jump through a hoop... He was having so much fun!

And today... Today was graduation. For the first time, I actually was not worried about whether he would pass or not! I knew he would pass just fine. I was concerned about the CGC though.

Here we go. To pass the test, the dog must
1. Accept a friendly stranger- they have to calmly accept someone approaching and speaking with/ touching their owner
2.Sit politely while a stranger pets them
3. Allow someone (not the owner) to groom and examine them
4. loose leash walk, politely, with distractions (like other people and dogs)
5.walk through a crowd- heeling with lots of distractions
6. sit/stay and down/stay- for several minutes, with distractions
7. Come from a distance when called
8. behave politely around other dogs
9. behave and not freak out around major distraction (like a chair dropped)
10. Supervised separation- owner is out of sight, dog behaves.

So, to make it easier for him, we went to the dog park first and romped a LOT to get ALL of his yah-yahs out. It worked perfectly. All that, and he passed on the FIRST TRY!!!!


Then, Rosco is also super spiffy because ever since I got him, although I knew he COULD swim, he WOULDN'T. We lost so many balls at the dog park because they would get just SIX INCHES too far out into the lake water and he would NOT get them. But the other day, there was another border collie mix who REALLY wanted Rosco's ball. And Rosco didn't want this dog to have his ball. So Rosco finally SWAM so he could get it before the other dog did! And then today, as part of the de-Yah-yah program, he swam again. But this time it was an old fat Labrador named Reece who wanted his ball! Huzzah! no more losing balls at the dog park because Rosco won't swim to get them. Lol.

My dog also fetches balls like a fiend. He will also fetch sticks, rope toys, stuffed animals, chewie toys, squeakers and soccer balls, or what ever else he throws at your feet or in your lap- just throw SOMETHING! He is the most enthusiastic, worst Frisbee dog EVER. He loves to chase and fetch, but he's terrible at catching Frisbees.