The Unruly Basenji Got Its Bronze Good Citizen!

At Southern Counties show yesterday I heard an announcement saying we could do the bronze good citizen test there so thought it would be something fun and different to do, so we went over and signed up. Was told that we had to do a 1 minute "Sit-stay" and had to have a little laugh, Maya has never, ever been asked to do that and being a basenji she definately has a mind of her own! But, I thought we'd give it a go anyway, who cares if she fails miserably, right?

Anyway, she passed the handling/grooming thing with no problems - she's used to have ears, mouth, feet and everything else handled from the showing so thats not a problem for her. Then we had to walk on a loose lead with the other dogs in the group and mingle, no problems there apart from her wanting to play with the large basset hound Then we had to do the gate, where she had to wait for me to go through and not push. I HATE pushy dogs and wont tolerate it, so one thing I do teach my dogs is to wait behind me when I go through a door and not to follow until invited, so no issues with that test either. Then we had the recall - I had visions of her jumping over the ring fencing and disappearing into the distance but her recall is very good so she did that perfectly, with a waggy tail and a smile on her face Then the difficult bit - the sit stay And here I feel the need to have a shameless brag, forgive me My little princess was the ONLY dog to complete that without moving an inch!! We were supposed to leave them and move about ten paces away I think it was... another brag... I was the only one able to do that as the other handlers had to stay close to eventually get their dogs to stay still!! **Brag Over**

But, she passed with flying colours, no problems at all, no one was more shocked than me I got a leaflet about the silver test as I might give it a go, she did so well with NO training at all, imagine what she might be able to do if we practice

Ooh, here's a pic of us during my "responsible ownership interview" Isn't she just the picture of obedient perfection...? LOL!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! That's brilliant! Not bad at all for no prior training!
Can you do it anywhere? I'd love to enter Axel...but he doesn't so sit cos it's not comfortable..will they accept lie down instead?
Well done and a well desereved qualification!

Well done Maya, not only beautiful but clever too!

Thanks guys!

If you contact the Kennel Club they will tell you where you can do the tests. For the bronze they dont insist you sit (one of the others led down for the stay and that was fine for this), its just testing the basic good manners of the dog rather than an obedience test so they arent really strict or critical, but only one other in our group passed cos the others all failed the "stay" so if I did it again with another dog i'd practice that I think

Thanks, I'll look into it and practice my wait!

well done im looking into doing it with mine, particularly asbo because hes a naughty little bu**er!

Many congratulations and you went in with the right attitude.

For other readers who may be considering this I would like to reassure you that:

The one minute stay exercise can be in ANY position, sit, stand or stay, the only requirements are that the dog must REMAIN in that position all the way through and in actual fact the lead should be dropped in this exercise.

Onwards and upwards!

Wow, Jessica, that's just fantastic. Well done Maya!

Yay! Well Done to you and Maya

Fab news!! Big well done to you.