Week 23

Twenty-two weeks down (thirty-one to go.)

Wednesday was the Canine Good Citizen test - and Zachary passed (see CGC Test Results.) Yeah! Since there are many different flavors of “passing” (or not) depending on the evaluator, one has to ask the question: But did he deserve it?

And the answer is…Yes. Not with a Gold Star, mind you. I had to work way too hard on the Loose Leash/Crowd/Reaction to Another Dog parts for him to be considered an “easy” pass. But sometimes a ‘B’ is a good as an ‘A’, and Wednesday night was one of those times.

That said, I’m going to keep some Canine Good Citizen items on the Weekly Worksheet for at least a few more weeks, just to see if we can’t give those areas he had the hardest time with a bit more (or a lot more) shine.

Accomplished Last Week:

After all the cramming we’ve been doing of late, I sort of let the rest of the week slide by after the CGC test. Oh well, summer is almost here and with luck that will mean an abundance of Homeschooling time to make up for it.

Core Studies: n/a

Canine Good Citizen: (see blog posting: CGC Test Results)

Weekly Quiz: I’m embarrassed to admit we didn’t do enough Weekly Quizzes this week to reach minimum progress.

Family Member: n/a

Extracurricular: We worked on Scenting, with only marginal improvements. My problems are all me and not them. I just haven’t come up with a good way of presenting things yet. Then, to make matters worse, I didn’t make it back to my Icky-Stranger’s office on Friday to retrieve my “articles” before she left for the weekend. No articles = No practices.

(sigh)

Just For Fun: n/a

Videoed: n/a

Released Video: n/a

Blog: Last CGC Pre-Test Outing, CGC Test Results, What's Next?

Planned for Next Week:

Per my blog posting this week, with the completion of the CGC Class, I’m going to give Homeschooling AKC Rally Novice a try as one of my 2010 Goals was to enter Zachary in a Match (or Show) by the end of the year. I hope to have time this week to develop some sort of Rally Homeschooling Syllabus. Right now I’m targeting a Show that is usually held in October, which is four plus months away.

This doesn’t mean I’m not going to continue on Training Levels! In fact, Rally Novice covers much of the same ground as Training Levels, so work on one is really just work/practice on the other. It also means I’ll have great On The Road testing opportunities, like Crate (since dogs must be crated for Rally Walkthru’s) and Go To Mat (since the dog needs someplace to Chill), plus all the usual Obedience things. Rally also does Fronts and Finishes, which will give me incentives to finish (pardon the pun) those icky beasties up.

Since Rally covers many of the Weekly Quiz items from last week, I’m just going to ditch that quiz altogether and move on to other things (mostly from Help Paw).

(As always, click to see larger)