Good citizen award resources....

Jinty and I are starting training classed soon. The basic course guides us up to the bronze good citizen award. I'm interested in 'going all the way' and achieving the gold one day.

Are there any books etc I could to give me an idea/tips etc on how to achieve this. The trainer offers classes all the way to gold....Im just nosy!

Hi, I am a KC Approved Good Citizen Test Examiner (Gold) so perhaps I can help?

There are plenty of resources for those wishing to pursue these awards.

The main website is here:

http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/dogtraining

List of all training clubs in the UK that offer this training and to what level is here as are details of all the tests included in each exam.

And basically all you need to know is there.

I would strongly recommend you purchase the GCDS Guidelines (£3 from the KC shop), as it contains all the information needed for all parties ie:

Host Clubs
Examiners
Candidates

which means you can read for yourself wht the examiner is expecting and what is and is not permitted.

HTH

Thanks Smokey bear! I guess, as an examiner, it is something you feel is worth aiming for then?

Some people need the motivation of an award/competition to train their dog.

It can often be the start of something else.

So yes, I feel it is worth aiming for and I think it is of benefit to the dog owner and society as well ie it demonstrates that you are a responsible owner who takes the welfare of their pet and the feelings of others into account.

There is nothing better than to complete all levels up to Gold esp when being told "a boxer wont be able to do that" from the collie people at my dog club...

Paige sure proved them wrong doing back to back courses and passing all of them on her 1st attempt!!

It was also a fab way to meet new people and most of all have Fun...Good luck with your pup...I too will be embarking on this with my new pup!! She starts classes on 4th July!!

Well done.

The whole purpose of the GCDS is that ANY breed and NO breed can comfortably do all the exercises. It is not a competition, you do not get marked, you are either ready or not ready.

one of my dogs have silver and one has gold i would def reccommed i loved doing the courses i got all my info of the kennel club website there is a book on the web site you can buy think it is 3.00 ps good luck with the bronze just wondering dont want to hyjack thread but as you are a examiner smokey bear do you know anyone in leicester who is doing gold as would love to do it with my other dog all the people ive contacted off the kc website either arent doing it anymore or dont respond thanks

Do you mean that you can find no clubs who train for the gold or that you cannot find a club that is holding a gold test in the immediate future?

both i cant fined a club they all seem to say that no ones intrested in doing gold so they dont do it which is a shame ive been doing the equivlent at my rspca but even they dont run many advanced classes which is equivalent to the gold

My boys have done it. Well Zane did gold very easily. I remember Yiannis doing the assessment for silver but until I find the certificates I couldn't be sure whether he did gold or not. I can't uimagine him doing it though - he is a bit of a lost cause where training is concerned since he was attacked.

I've trained my girls up to silver level but they've not been formally assessed. Would like them to do it at some point but there's no rush. I know what they will and won't do and tbh, that's all that matters.

I found that it's mostly basic stuff and as you go through the levels, you just ad in more bits of basic stuff. I don't believe there's anything horrendously difficult in the assessments although having someone scrutinise how your dog behaves with you can be unnerving at the best of times and make the whole thing quite hard.

Good luck.