The "Granddog" Gets His CGC

This was a "Grandkids" weekend. I drove all the way up to Brownwood with Steve on Friday to pick Cameron and Morgan up. They had an early release day for their last day of school and their Mom asked Steve to pick them up in Brownwood instead of Marble Falls which is the halfway point. She wanted to pick them up in San Antonio Monday as they were headed to South Padre. The kids had a big day out on Saturday with Steve and Helen's friends at Canyon Lake....swim time is always fun. Sunday was spent with us. Then, later in Sunday afternoon, Helen headed off to a meeting and Steve, the kids, Angus, and I headed up to Austin. It was a big day for Angus as he was scheduled to take his Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test. He passed his Advanced training a couple of weeks ago but the CGC is much more difficult to pass and a very big deal in the canine world. It lets everyone know that he is just as good a boy as we all think he is.

The test was scheduled for 6:30PM on the north side of Austin so we left plenty early as you just never know about traffic up there. We got there really early as we slid through town with nary a traffic snarl.....highly unusual. We found a restaurant with an outside patio.

Cameron had Japanese noodles, Steve and I settled on Pad Thai, and Morgan went with good old macaroni and cheese. Everything was very good. Angus was happy to relax with us. He and Steve practiced a few maneuvers after supper and then they were off.

And then the waiting began. We knew it would be a long wait as there were going to be 12 dogs taking the exam. First we meandered through a nearby Walmart dragging that out as long as we could. Then I took the kids to a Yogurt place. They had sorbet for Cam since he doesn't eat dairy so that worked out great....a place to sit down for a while. Now it would probably have been easier for me to have stayed at home with the kids where they could have watched a movie but they wanted to come along so we made it work. We sat outside for quite a while after the yogurt was gone. Tic-tac-toe kept them occupied. Then we went for a walk around the area. Finally we walked over near ZoomRoom which is where the exam was going on. They have a lot of big floor to ceiling windows so I didn't want Angus to see us and get distracted but they were through the last item on the test so it was okay when his head perked up.

This test was really rough especially with 12 other dogs and with the added distraction of scents of hundreds of dogs having been trained at Zoom Room. Angus had his "Dad" sweating bullets because if you fail any one of the many items on the exam, you fail the test. It's definitely not an exam that everyone passes on the first or even second go round. Angus got a retake on one area which is allowed and then he "passed" and graduated. Proud "papa" and Angus (can you tell he was worn out?) right after the exam was over.

Angus is headed to "graduate school" for therapy dogs this fall after summer with his family including the kids. You might see him out walking with the Traveling Longdogs.