Cavalier Talk

Last night (8/12/08) Cruiser and I finally began our Canine Good Citizen class that I have been wanting to do with him for quite some time now. Since Cruiser is a champion already I don’t have to worry about confusing him with stand or sit. Show dogs need to learn to stand for long periods of time and therefore most handlers do not teach show dogs to sit. Obedience training is totally different and the sit command is used often.

We lucked out and have a class all of our own right now…maybe a few more people will enroll next week, but there is a testing day mid-September that our teacher (Miss Cathy) thinks we will be ready for, but we will see. Cruiser definitely has a head start since he already knows how to walk on a lead and he has always been such a quick learner. He is 3 1/2 yrs old now so his attention span will be much greater at this age making it much easier for me to train him. Luckily he doesn’t have any real bad habits that need correcting so we can just jump right on into our new training program.

Our homework this week includes working on our heel command. I now hold the leash totally different than in conformation and when we come to a stop from heeling we want Cruiser to learn to sit automatically so teaching him to sit is also in our assignment. Cruiser actually accomplished both these assignments within a couple of tries last night, but I will need to go over them with him daily so that he realizes that they are actually his new commands to follow when asked.

Once we get Cruiser through his CGC Test then we will head into some obedience trials and see how far we can go there. I want to learn several of the different activities that can be done with dogs like obedience, rally, and maybe even agility since not all dogs are show dogs, but I do believe all dogs can be obedience dogs and should be able to follow the leadership of their owner.

Cruiser is a very special dog with a huge desire to please me. He excelled quickly in conformation obtaining his championship title in just 4 months, which is unusual for a dog that didn’t have much training. I raised him as my pet and then one day just took him to a professional handler and turned him loose. Next thing I knew he won Best of Breed twice at his first show and had a major and 5 points under his belt without even blinking an eye. Cruiser spoiled me. He learns things and obeys commands as quick as snapping your fingers. I have had to learn more patience with my other Cavaliers through training because most of the time dogs do not respond as quickly as Cruiser has responded. I at least know the difference now when you get a dog that has more natural ability to learn versus having to train them to learn.

Right now I would have to say Sadie is the next Cavalier that could turn out similar to Cruiser. Sadie has a lot of natural ability and really catches on quickly. Her temperament test at 7 weeks of age gave a much dimmer outlook as she ranked a 6 which meant she was totally independent and would not accept correction very well…she has proven to me that temperament testing may be a useful tool to get an idea about a puppy at that particular moment, but molding a puppy still continues through their first year and I now believe no matter what the temperament a puppy has at 7 weeks that through puppy classes and regular training any dog can turn into a wonderful companion that obeys commands. (www.cruisincavaliers.com)