Sunday, May 22, 2011

Houston, we have a .....CGC?

Today my morning started off with a bang.

Normally, for me a Sunday morning consists of...well, not much. I like to sleep in as long as possible to delay the inevitable return of work the following day. Sure, I have to do chores around the house and run errands that don't get done during the week because of the perpetual shortage of time that occurs on the days from Monday through Friday; however, I also put these off as long as possible (or at least until I've wrinkled myself like a raisin in the hot shower).

Reese got a surprise this morning! I decided we should take advantage of the local rescue league's Canine Good Citizen testing opportunity! So, up at 7:30 for a nice long walk/jog to wear her out (a bit at least!) so that she wouldn't be bouncing off the walls and barking at every moving thing once we got to the facility. It was overcast and windy, but humid as all get out...so we got sweaty, but the wind/lack of sun kept us somewhat cool. We journeyed two miles! Truth be told, we both needed the exercise anyway! By the middle of the second mile, she was stopping off in the grass to test if I'd let her just relax and take a load off. Nope...leisure was not the idea this morning!

Once we got home, we had to coax her toward the car to load up...COAX! The poor pup was grudgingly walking toward the car like we were going to torture her with a trip to the dog park or somewhere else she'd have to walk forevermore! It was too funny to see her expression. =]

Anywho - immediately after we arrive and take her outta the crate, she starts barking at every little thing (unfamiliar territory after all) and she is pulling on the leash like a madwoman with a second wind! I can't believe it and my heart sinks. All I can think is, "Great, so much for THAT brilliant idea...now we're going to look like fools and fail the test because she is going to be a basket case as long as we're here." Luckily, I see there are only a couple of other cars there..."Good, there appears to be a shortage of witnesses for our humiliation." heh

Fancy my surprise when we walk into the building and Reese quiets down and puts on her game face. It was instantaneous. She was curious and wanted to look around and check things out...which the judge excitedly encouraged us to do (she was a VERY nice lady!). I walked her around the training room so she would become familiar with the sights and sounds and she was a dream after that. The judge was taken with her and thought her absolutely adorable. =] We ended up having to go first for everything (wasn't too excited about that), but all went well and I didn't fall on my face or make a fool of myself.

So, that's the long story...but she PASSED with flying colors and will now be a CGC! I will post pictures once we officially receive the certificate in the mail, but it's SO exciting! I couldn't wait to post it. =] I took some great pics of her after we got home and will maybe have to get them framed with the certificate or something. I definitely want to submit the pics to the Corgi Butts "Corgis with blogs" calendar contest!




PS - Reese was interested in the agility stuff on the sidelines and the judge told me they do a 4 week class for agility . We are seriously thinking of signing up for it! *squeal!!*

5 comments:

  1. Agility is great fun and I would totally encourage you to give it a try. Congrats on the CGC.

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  2. Yay!!! Congratulations to you and Reese!

    She's so pretty; love the brown eyes (like my Dewi's). :)

    Good luck with the agility training. JF would probably love to do that at some point.

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  3. Thanks everyone! So excited to have done this with her and she seems to really enjoy herself when asked to work. I'm very hopeful that we can make time to do agility work with her someday...and I really want to get her herding instinct tested. She's already proven herself at our family farm, but I wanna see her around sheep! =]

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  4. Great job, Ash and Reese! Luv, G'ma. p.s. Great reading!

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