My cardigan corgi who is 14 months old has passed the bronze and silver and is now doing the gold award. I was wondering if there were any owners of difficult to train dogs who had passed the gold award. As the owner of a peke as well, who I would class as difficult to train I am fascinated to know if anyone has achived the gold with a similar dog. This is not meant as a criticism of difficult to train dogs, it is just that some dogs DO respond more to formal training  more than others. Dont you agree?

They always said you could never get a Boxer to get their Gold...
I did get Gold with my girl :D

and wheaten are nto know for the obedience!! lol but dougal is starting he gold training on friday! (dougal is also 14 months old :) )

sarah xxxxx

Excellent. Glad to hear of other breeds doing gold. We are finding it quite hard, particuarly, stop the dog, which Ada  ( cardi ) has taken about 4 weeks to learn!. Good luck Sarah.
Anna xx

thanks anna :D Its funny isnt it, the 'stop the dog' is the one think i know that dougal will do when we start training. How are you learning the send away (go to bed) ? ;)

sarah xxxxx

When we learnt go to bed our instructor asked us to bring in our dogs bed, well, Ada sleeps on the leather sofa and I did not fancy trying to get it  into my car!!!. Anyway , the way we learnt it was to put a treat on the bed and let the dog see it, then send them up to the bed and as they are eating the treat tell them down. Now Ada will do it without the treat and in fact at home she will go and lie on the bed  without being told and look at me for a treat.
Anna xx

Spitz breeds are not renowned for their Obedience skills, but I know a number of Buhunds who have won their gold. A bitch sired by my dog has just won hers at 10 yrs old :D

Oooo I have to get practising! Like I said I haven't started the training yet but I can't wait! I don't think that dougal will pass first time but I think he will eventually. Can you give me any training tips?! :D

sarah xxxxx

I would like to do this with my Staffys,what is involved at the bronze level.I would like to progress to gold if possible.

Hi there,

Here is the link for the...

BRONZE http://www.the-kennel-club.org.uk/training/bronze.htm
SILVER http://www.the-kennel-club.org.uk/training/trainingcontent.asp?page=3
and
GOLD http://www.the-kennel-club.org.uk/training/gold.htm

The gold is very hard to pass!

Hope this helps ;)

sarah xxxxx

Thanks,I have looked through those links and my male Staff (Tank) would not be far of the gold level.The first two he would do easy,as I do this basic training with all my dogs.The bed thing I don't do,but I do do simaliar training with him.My female Staff would do well up to silver,she may need some work to get her to passing level at that.But my male would defenatly be at the gold level,I do that type of training with my dogs most days.Thanks again for the links,I will get the dogs up to scratch.

Hey tank sounds brilliant! I had a quick look at the KC website and here is what it said....

Where can I find out about my local course?
Puppy Foundation courses will be run through Kennel Club Registered Dog Training Clubs, Kennel Club Listed Training Clubs, Adult Education Centres and Veterinary Practices approved by The kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme.
Details of your local course can be found by contacting the GCDS on telephone number 020 7518 1011 or by email on gcds@the-kennel-club.org.uk. Please include your full name and address when requesting information because packs are posted to you.

Good luck if you take the test and dont forget to post on here when you pass!!! :D

sarah xxxxx

I did it with an afghan, and they are allegedly untrainable!

Well none of mine are unusual breeds as far as training does (have passed Gold with Goldens, crossbreed, Malinois and Cavalier) but I thought you might be interested to know that a lady I know in the US has made up 5 obedience champion Corgis! :D

On the course Moss did there was a Basenji and she passed, the owner also had a dog that had completed gold.

I have a Beagle and he got his Gold! :)

Very proud, it such a great feeling when you pass, goodluck and have fun! :)

Wow!!. were they pems or cardis?. I know that in other countries Cardigan Corgis have achieved much higher standards of obedience, including herding cattle, which was their original purpose.:-)

Pembrokes. :)

It is easy to label dogs difficult to train, when it is more likely that the "trainer" has found that the one method they have used successfully on "a" dog or a breed, or group does not necessarily work on their next one.

Sometimes you just have to be more inventive with your training and work to the strengths of your dogs, rather than their weaknesses and understand their predispositions, when you understand what drives your particular breed, you can adapt the training accordingly.

I personally do not agree that some breeds respond more to formal training than others, I just think that the owners/trainers have not found the way into that dog's head......... but I could be wrong.

I have watched Chihuahuas and Yorkshire terriers work obedience competitively, there has been Ob Ch Papillons in Sweden, also at least one SAR Papillon and one Pap guide dog there (!) and I used to have a friend who worked her, wait for it, racing greyhound who was currently racing as well. :) The first person in Sweden that imported Shibas and long were the only person allowed to breed them in Sweden (long before they existed in the UK) used to have obedience demonstrations with them at all sorts of animal exhibitions, dog shows etc, she had a whole team. Another Swede that did similar things to that had her own "mini circus" and was travelling the country with it,she always worked Bullterriers and Smooth Foxterriers -and Potbellied pigs! :D

I agree with tohme that dogs can be wrongly labelled untrainable. Some trainers locally declined to let me go to their classes with my afghan for that very reason. I felt that that was a failure on their part. A good job then that I was determined and found a trainer that thought sighthounds to be a great fun challenge... the fact that Delilah got her gold shows those first "so called" trainers wrong. I have half considered takeing her and her certificate to show them!
IMHO any dog can be trained if you find out what makes them tick.

Oh, you should definitely find an excuse to go along there, definitely!! :-D

I passed the gold award in April this year, i really didn't think we would, the send away was what we found hardest, mainly because every time i sent her away to her bed, she'd be so excited that she'd leap into it and then mate it, don't know why,so we tried other things such as rugs,blankets old carpets etc but she didn't want any of these.Fortunately on the day she went to her bed with perfection and did the best off lead close heel work of all the dogs taking part.

Well done:-) I am guessing from your user name that you have a chocolate lab called Molly.?

yes,i've been found out! how did you work out the lab bit?or have you seen it mentioned elsewhere?

Mainly the behaviour of Molly re her bed + I could not think of many other chocolate breeds.:-)

My Cavalier got his gold, and I couldn't help but notice that the other dogs were all retrievers, collies or GSDs! My Yankee would have passed except he got up in his down stay, and my puppy Cav has passed her bronze.