doing Bronze tonight at dog club!

[JaxTellersOldLady]

and to say I am nervous/anxious is a total understatement, pupstar can do everything except a 1 minute stay... well she CAN do it, but only when she chooses to do so.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us tonight. I am already having kittens as DH is away and Loofa sliced his paw open last night - dont know what on! I have bandaged it and Mikki boot on, so he is ok. AAARRRGGH!

Off out to garden to do some training in the hope that madame will forget she is a teenager and listen to me this evening!

good luck
try humming and singing - worked for me (see anxious owner thread)

though i didnt have to contend with teenager mine is nearly 4 and relatively calm for a jrt

Good luck! Ruby (5 mos. border collie) and I are supposed to be taking our bronze in 2 weeks time. Her stays are spot on, but her (ie my) heel work is HOPELESS!! Let us know how you get on.

will do woodrose her heel work is fine, and everything else is fantastic, just the bloody 1 min stay... ho hum.

humming and singing... OK, will try anything, pretty sure the others will think I am a loon but needs must.

It doesnt help that the person 'judging' has a border collie and I saw it in action a few weeks ago. This dog is the perfect obedience dog in every single way.

On a 'positive' note, we have only moved up to bronze class 2 weeks ago, so if we dont pass it is no biggy - also have to say when we did a mock last week she was so much better than most all of the older/more experienced dogs!

Oooh good luck, we should be taking our bronze in a few weeks and exactly the same as you, it's the stay that's going to be the problem.

He will do it happily in the house, the park, the fecking street even, in class he won't even consider it.

Good luck. dd(13) and dog sat their bronze a couple of weeks ago and passed everything EXCEPT the 1 minute stay. In all honesty, dd was sitting it for experience and although Rory had managed a full minute in the kitchen with no distractions, we didn't really expect it to happen on the night!

They took 4 or 5 candidates at a time. The stay was apparently first attempted en-masse then the 'failures' got a chance to try it individually if they wanted.

Out of the 13 bronze candidates, 6 passed and I think all of the "not readys" fell down on the 1 minute stay.

Fingers crossed for you.

Good luck Mine (heinz57 4 yrs) will do anything for a piece of cheese He was a nightmare when I got him, barked at all dogs. He's good as gold-ish now though

I did my Bronze and Silver with one of our greys. It was terrific and we really enjoyed it. What made the Stays a dream to do was that every week (much to the amusement of the entire class) I brought a sheepskin rug (one of those Ikea ones) for our boy, as no self respecting greyhound would DREAM of lying on a cold, hard church hall floor. This made sure he could (and did) lie down comfortably and as we all know, once a grey is down and comfy, that's it for the night. Even Colin, the Jack Russell who used to bounce up and down on the end of his nose wouldn't stir him.

In all seriousness, several other people then also started doing it, as they found it made a nice "anchor" for the dog, if that makes sense, especially as some are a bit sensitive about lying on a cold floor. May be worth a try?

Good luck anyway. We've got our certificates in the downstairs loo and the rosettes are lovely. I was absolutely sick with nerves the day of the test.

thanks skuttle, dont think a bit of vet bed would work for pupstar. Although I do like your idea. Might give it a shot, wont do any harm.

curiousmama we arent allowed to use treats when being tested. The dog has to do it because we say so it wants to do it.

Jax afaiaa there is nothing in the KC literature that says you cannot reward? We certainly can, you should take it up with your club.

Jax - are you saying you are not allowed to treat your dog at all during the test? That is surely not right! Obviously, during the 1 minute stay you can't feed treats every 5 seconds since you have to be 5 paces away IIRC. But you can treat throughout everything else......

I like the idea of the vetbed. Do you think we'd get away with a portable hardboard screen right round our pup for the stay? Or maybe blinkers ?

hey good luck, we did bronze a few weeks ago (failed biut only on the stay), we moved up to the silver class anyway and have to do both tests next time. You will be fine.

well, did Bronze, failed on 1 minute stay, we got to do it again with another 2 who failed on stay, but she moved after about 40 seconds and so did the other 2.

I dont mind, I didnt expect to pass it, but we will next time!

No, you cant give treats or use your toy - they should heel without treats, although when I was waiting around inbetween parts of the test I gave her some chicken.

Her heel work and everything else was excellent and I answered all the questions correctly.

Aw, well done, I'm sure you will get it next time round.

I've just got back from class, both the whippet and I are shattered.

yep, so are we. Had forgotten that I had an Ocado order coming between 10 and 11pm, thank god they text!

We have our Bronze test next Wednesday - can anybody tell me what to expect with the questions on the responsibility and care leaflet? The literature is so difficult to understand. What's all this business about "One one numbered item may constitute a question"? It's the part of the test I'm most worried about!

Umm, not sure what you mean?

I presume you have this?

It says-

Bronze Test The handler should be able to give three out of six correct answers from Section One only.

Simples

I got asked direct questions from the list, what numbers shoulld you leave if leaving dog with a friend was one that I remember, dog warden and vet is the answer. it is only the section 1 so not too many too remember. reminded me I should read through the next lot at some point.

Yes, that's the sheet I have. There's a note at the top about only one numbered item constituting a question. I just wondered if they were going to say "Name three responsibilities you have to your dog", or if it would be as ditavonteesed said and the questions would be more specific.

Hmm.... I know dd was asked "Name 3 things your dog needs".

By the way, I checked with her about treats, and she said that during the test she was allowed to use as many treats as she wanted - there was no restriction for heel work or anything.

I hope it's "Name 3 things your dog needs". I can do that :)

I was asked questions as they are on the sheet WTWTW posted.

So "Name 3 responsibilities you have to your dog?"

"How can you tell if a dog is ill?"

etc etc

The bronze is basic common sense.

Oh, and we had to show that we had poo bags, remove collar and tag while being in control of the dog (using a slip lead) be able to demonstrate showing/touching 'teeth', eyes, feet etc and what would we do at the vets, ie, reassure dog and put dog in a comfortable position to be examined.

I was told that although we didnt pass on the stay command I was a fantastic dog handler that my dog obviously is working stock (hahahaaaaaa could that be because she is a bouncy nutter?) and I was doing a fantastic job!

I should also add that dd was also asked 2 other questions, but I can't remember what they were! (i.e. The 3 things your dog needs was 1 question, not 3!)

My spaniel has got no chance of passing his silver unless I start serious training again as we haven't been to classes for almost a year due to my college course!

Doesn't 1 minute seem a long time when you're praying for them not to move!

Good luck for next time.

The examiner asked me a question about children being supervised around dogs and I said, oh my goodness they are a nightmare aren't they, when they get too much I put the children in the crate and leave the dog loose

(I have a Border Collie too)

1 minute felt like forever fruitshoots and when I was waiting for my friend who was doing her silver for the 2 mins, while I hid in the kitchen out of the way of her dog it felt worse!