Shayla and I worked together for months, under the patient and knowledgeable direction of Prescott dog trainer Lisa Saputo. Weeks of obedience training, followed by more weeks of the American Kennel Club's Canine Good Citizen (CGC) training. This smart dog passed the 10-point certification training on our first testing.
I wanted to complete the training and earn Shayla's certification to make it easier to take her into some event locations with me. She is not a therapy nor even an emotional support dog. But passing the CGC certification/testing means that she is recognized by the AKC, and others, as a well-trained dog who responds to core commands and remains under good control on leash.
Eventually we plan to continue training beyond CGC to show off her strong reliability and off leash control publicly. I am happy to say that Shayla has indeed come a long ways. When we first adopted her she used to climb under the chain link fence to the neighbors property, prompting us to become good friends with our neighbors for repeat retrieval. Now she will stay close to us on walks, flawlessly heed the light touch of an e-collar on nature walks (if that is needed at all). It is such a joy to know that we can trust each other, based on a rapport of training and understanding.
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