You guys! So excited! Chili passed his CGC today and we were certified as a therapy dog team! We knew he had an aptitude for it because he's so calm and loves strangers, but so happy we can now share him with the world! Random people come up to us to hug him and he enjoys the attention!

We'll be spending at least an hour a week at a library or elementary school with kids and also helping out at various events at hospitals, nursing homes and colleges (during stressful exam weeks!).

For the new folks - Chili was found as a stray at four years on by a sheriff about an hour from where we live. When he couldn't find Chili's parents, he surrendered him to rescue and we adopted him four days later. He's our big teddy bear and so wonderful! Thank you to Denise for your testing tips, we definitely used those! Frankie is an even MORE impressive specimen of certified husky since he embodies more of the husky spirit than Chili does. You guys were definitely an inspiration for all your hard work!

Way to go!!! I kind of want to get Yuki certified for that. She doesn't love strangers that much, but when shes senses someone is sick or in pain she runs up to them and will NOT leave their side. Chili is my inspiration for my future red, his coat is gorgeous! Again, congratulations <3 I bet it was lots of hard work that finally paid off

Koda goes to the library on post and has the special needs kids read to him. He loves it!

Congrats Chili!

That's awesome! Congrats!! I'm hoping Luna can become a therapy dog for veterans one day. Right now she has too much puppy in her!

Way to go!!! I love hearing about huskies doing good deeds like this.

Congrats Sam and Chili! That is awesome news!

Aw! He's going to be just like Seamus! LOL! Congrats guys!

Awwww...thanks guys! We're so excited to start!

Con grats Sam and Chili great work you two are doing I would love it if one of mine could do that.

Love to read the great news huskies can do something special.

Congrats!! I'd love to have Ava do something like that - sometime, haha

Congratulations, great job Sam and Chili.

WooT!

Bit congratulations to the both of you!!!

~Chris~

Congrats! That's awesome!

Side note: Chili looks cross eyed in that picture! The big goof! lol. I'm sure the kids will love him.

Congrats!

That's so awesome!
Congrats to both of you!

Congrats! That's such great news

Excellent! Many congrats to you and Chili.

We are currently in the final training classes for CGC and Therapy dogs with Onyx, its going to be a long road but I feel very worth it in the end to see the smiles they could produce.

Thanks guys! I'm referring to him as Mommy's little Good Canine Citizen.

Sara - Chili IS cross eyed! It's what made hubby fall in love with him at the rescue! We don't notice it much so it may be worse when he's tired.

I think we have our first event booked next week! Since the elementary school season is wrapping up for the year, there are other events set up - so we're helping the kids at the local law school de-stress during exam week! Chili's going to law school! LOL

That sounds like so much fun! How long did it take him to become a CGC? Hopefully one day I can do it with my baby too Let us know how he likes law school!

lol. How did I not know that?! I bet the kids will love that he's cross eyed.

Great Job! thats so exciting! i cant wait to hear all the things you will be doing!

Dot wrote:

That sounds like so much fun! How long did it take him to become a CGC? Hopefully one day I can do it with my baby too Let us know how he likes law school!

The test is quick and takes just a few minutes, and the therapy certification is just a few tasks added on. You can take the canine good citizen test any time you feel confident in your dog passing all the tasks (http://images.akc.org/pdf/cgc/GK9GC1.pdf). A lot of places offer training for the test or you can just work with your dog at home on the tasks. If you have a more focused and mellow dog, it's really easy. If they're more energetic, you have to expel their energy before training sessions and learn how to get them to focus on the task at hand.

Congrats!

Onyx_Blitz wrote:

Excellent! Many congrats to you and Chili.

We are currently in the final training classes for CGC and Therapy dogs with Onyx, its going to be a long road but I feel very worth it in the end to see the smiles they could produce.

Good luck with Onyx! We had a little bit of an advantage since Chili is 6 1/2 and has a super calm temperament, so we can't take much credit for this other than doing consistently training him and socializing him. We take our dogs everywhere and expose them to many different types of people, environments and situations. I think that helped a lot, especially testing with the crowds, walking through a ton of medical equipment and having five people hover over him petting him at the same time.

Heather! wrote:

Dot wrote:

That sounds like so much fun! How long did it take him to become a CGC? Hopefully one day I can do it with my baby too Let us know how he likes law school!

The test is quick and takes just a few minutes, and the therapy certification is just a few tasks added on. You can take the canine good citizen test any time you feel confident in your dog passing all the tasks (http://images.akc.org/pdf/cgc/GK9GC1.pdf). A lot of places offer training for the test or you can just work with your dog at home on the tasks. If you have a more focused and mellow dog, it's really easy. If they're more energetic, you have to expel their energy before training sessions and learn how to get them to focus on the task at hand.

I wish it was that short for us! I was exhausted at the end. I believe it varies by program and evaluator.

Our test combined CGC and therapy tasks. We had 4 groups of 4-5 dogs so the entire test time was about 2 1/2 hrs, with active working time being about 20 minutes of that, so a lot of waiting and making sure your dog behaves during that time - probably a great simulation of actual therapy work!