Jade is a Canine Good Citizen

Over the past few weeks Jade has been working hard to earn the AKC's Canine Good Citizen Award which certifies that a dog can be a respected member of the community using good manners in the presence of people and other dogs. Dogs need not be registered with the AKC to train and test for CGC. This test would be a bit premature since Jade hadn't quite completed the entire seven week course. However, since we hope to leave Florida within the week, we thought it would be good if she could get her award and be ready to start Rally-Obedience when we return in the fall.

Ready to give it a go Wednesday evening, we arrived at the gym where a number of dog training classes were being held! At this point I must say we simply cannot praise our trainers May and Russ Inman enough! They are great! Also, their wonderful Golden Retriever, Molly, and Golden Doodle, Espresso have been so helpful in Jade's training for the past weeks! We met our AKC Evaluator, Jennifer Pingleton and her dog, Logan. Jennifer's and Logan's calm demeanors instantly put us at ease and we were ready to start the tests. As we entered the ring, May invited the rest of the class to take seats on the bleachers and watch! Oh...Oh...More pressure! Ha! Jennifer is very professional and conducted the evaluation with competent enthusiasm. Thank you, Jennifer! We are so thrilled Jade did well! What a sweet, hard working girl she is! After receiving the award, May presented her with a fuzzy bright pink squeaky toy and does she love that toy! She squeaked it all the way home and is asleep with it under a front paw as I type. I think she knows she "earned" it! Thank you, May! Also, our thanks to Al and Ileane Taylor who introduced us to Peace River Dog Fanciers! We look forward to seeing all of you in the fall!

And, by the way, Jade's DNA test (mentioned in a previous blog) proved her to be a PB German Shepherd...not a Belgian! Who knew?! We don't care what she is, she's our precious girl!