Has anyone done this and if so how far did you get with it ?
We did the Foundation class with Gus and due to the trainer stopping and starting classes all the time, we  never got around to going any further with it. :rolleyes:

Have now found another trainer ( some way away) and am going to take Libs - she mentioned we could go with Gus and advance onto the Bronze but how hard would it be to return after such a long break ?

Hi Lel,
     I did the foundation at puppy class with Sal. Then took a break when she came into season and went back when she was about 1. She has done the bronze and silver passed both. They are relatively "within our limititations" and require no more than what you would expect yourself from your dog.

     The examiner did give three of us who took the silver tests TWO/THREE attempts at "calling the dog from a distraction" because as she said each breed has it's own "agenda" and that what she wanted to see was a "level of control" not  "robot control" which I thought was very fair. :)
     Sal  meet the "distraction" which in our case was a dog. But on her way back had to investigate a "carrier bag" blowing in the wind.So she came back on the second call. A pointer being testedthe same as us, came back after the third call because he even I could see had the scent of something.
     So from what I could say is the "examiners" are very very fair. :)   And one of the dogs in our silver class was a 10 year old rescue beagle. So can't see why Gus couldn't do it.
     Karen 

Toxic failed her Bronze today - could not get her to do a minute's stay - maybe not surprising at 14 weeks and her first outing to a dog show

Buster has gold and the examiners were fair. Were going to do bronze with bengi soon but i would start praticising the silver and gold elements as soon as you can as some can be difficult like the send away for example it took us quite a while to get this without using treats ( we used them to begin with ) so instead i taught it in stages and he got it in the end. I will say its become really usefull in everyday life as we use the drop command now if we need to and he does it 9 times out of 10. :)

My first Mal passed foundation but failed the bronze twice due to an inability to stay... as soon as the room goes quiet, he does a commando crawl towards the nearest bitch!!!

My youngest did foundation and then we did the classes for the bronze but due to the Club moving, I stopped and never restarted. However, we sort of got pushed into trying the bronze award at the Mal Club show the other week and he passed, so I'd say that a break doesn't mean it's too late to try :)

Megan is doing her gold in July and Ellie is doing Silver then too. I think i'm goingto have enough problems with the questions, but for ellie, the ignoring food is going to be the hardest, as she is the worlds greediest golden retriever!! I think hte only problem i am going to have with megan is the heel work and the road walk, but we are working on it so fingers crossed. Did you see about the irish setter who passed bronze at 12 weeks old? (It was in this weeks dog world.) I thought ellie was good at 6 months, but we must have been very slow!

Cava has gold and Una had silver all my other dogs had Bronze when there was only Bronze. Zymi has puppy foundation and is training for bronze.

I'd go for it Lel the worst that can happen is you won't get it. My Kree Boxer got Bronze and there was nobody more surprised than me. From what you've said about your dogs I bet he'll be fine :)
       Anne

We have just done our puppy foundation award and are now training for the bronze - I think its an excellent way to bond with your dog whilst teaching some very valuable exercises, I also enjoy having something to aim towards and the challenge - especially with my madam :)  I particularly like doing stays with my bitch as she is sooo laid back she chills right out and almost falls asleep!
I say go for it!!
Sarah

Wow- thanks for all the replies everyone :)
Will definitely give it a shot then - I think I was concerned that Gus has been away from training for a while . Although he still goes to handling class he hasnt been to any training classes.
Going to have a bit of a doggy hectic schedule for a while . ;)
Libby starts her first training class tomorrow ( well its more a meet and greet tomorrow) and her first handling class on Tuesday :)
Will let you all know how things go

I wouldn't worry abot not going to training for a while lel, the good thing about KCGC awards is that all the exercises are every day good manners. For example, getting in and out of a car, walking nicely on a lead, food manners, controlled greeting, handling e.t.c. (I think all nearly all of my examples are silver, so bronze is even better!) I am sure Gus can manage all of these things normally, so chances are all you need is some fine tuning. Good luck with everything, and i think it is nice to have a hectic doggy schedule rather than a hectic schedule full of anything else!

I'd say it was worth it as it made us work so hard on the "leave" command for leaving food, etc. just as Sparky was getting a bit above himself and thought he could help himself to anything. My stroppy teenage darling has done the bronze and silver with Sparky - working towards gold slowly as he's not so keen on the isolation bit - he'll stay if he can see us, but at our little club they are left in the ladies for a few minutes with one of the examiners locked in a loo to see if they kick up a fuss!

My dog passed his bronze when he was 10 yrs old. He hadn't done any obedience training since he was 2!!!!!

Hi

Two of mine have their Gold and a third his Silver.

One had a break of one year between Silver and Gold due to illness/surgery but still picked training up quite quickly (6 weeks prior to test).

The scheme teaches everyday good manners both in and out of the home and as such is far more practical than competitive obedience - well worth the training effort IMO.

we (well, Tally!) passed the bronze last Friday! dead impressed as we thought she might fail..shes being a bit of a teenager at the mo!..but yep she did it (she is 11 months) starting silver this week :-0

Hopefully the gold will actually reflect the standard it is supposed to represent soon with some of the exercises being required to be completed out of doors (other than the road walk) which is of far more practical use in the real world. 

The KC are currently negotiating with the National Trust and other organisations so that the Gold Award holders have some privileges.

I think there are already some privileges for Gold holders with National Coaches and Travel Lodges.  The KC would confirm. 

The official requirement for 4 elements to be done outside, off-lead (but in a secure area) are from 1 July I believe.   However, a lot of clubs have run the Gold under these conditions anyway.  In some instances the whole of the Gold has been done outside and off-lead so people who got their Gold under these conditions truly deserved it.

Wish and myself took our silver good citizens test last night and our test was held outside even though there are only a small number of elements that require you to be outside at this level,but we also do quite alot of the training outside normally so although some dogs weren't too keen on going down on the wet ground at first they soon got over it and worked well.Gillian