Canine Good Citizen Training Tips: Accepting a Friendly Stranger
Preparing for the AKC Canine Good Citizen Test means you’ll be getting social. As soon as you think about training for the CGC Test, make a list of potential friends you can recruit to help you with practicing some of the test tasks.
Task #1: Accepting a friendly stranger
The AKC description of this first test reads:
“This test demonstrates that the dog will allow a friendly stranger to approach it and speak to the handler in a natural, everyday situation. The evaluator walks up to the dog and handler and greets the handler in a friendly manner, ignoring the dog. The evaluator and handler shake hands and exchange pleasantries. The dog must show no sign of resentment or shyness.”
The friendly stranger is not necessarily the CGC evaluator. If the CGC evaluator has a relationship with your dog, then they’ll recruit a friendly stranger who does not know your dog and watch that person interact with your dog.
According to the CGC Evaluator Guide, the evaluator looks for three main behaviors:
The dog must show no sign of resentment, aggression or shyness.
The dog may not jump on or rush to the friendly stranger to initiate contact. The dog may not lunge forward to greet the friendly stranger.
The dog should be under control throughout the exercise. If the handler must use excessive corrections (e.g., trying to hold the dog to prevent jumping) to control the dog, the dog should not pass the exercise.
Watch the video below for a few quick demonstrations of what accepting a friendly stranger looks like during the CGC Test.
Disclaimer
Before you start reading the training tips, please remember I am not a professional dog trainer. I am a dog parent just like you who wants my dog living up to CGC expectations for being a well-mannered pup in public. I’ve pulled these tips from a variety of sources, including online videos, webinars, books, and dog obedience classes I’ve attended. I’ve used all of the tips I suggest, but not all of these ideas may be right for you or your dog.
If you’re serious about wanting your dog to be a good neighbor, you should absolutely 100% be working with a professional dog trainer. Read more about why working with a professional dog trainer is one of the best decisions you’ll make for you and your dog. Once you’ve found a professional dog trainer who understands you and your goals, then online resources can serve as helpful reminders and inspiration.
Practicing for Task #1
Evaluate your dog’s ability to keep “four on the floor.” Ask yourself how you would rate your dog’s ability to stay calm during greetings and not jump on people.
If your dog is super mellow and never jumps on anyone, then you can probably practice a few times during a CGC Class and pass this test task with flying colors.
But, if you’re still reading, then you’re like me. You’ve got a pup who’s enthusiastic about meeting everyone.
Start small and at home
You absolutely cannot let your dog jump on you or other members of your household.
You will need buy-in from every member of your home. This may include that one person who likes to razz your dog, get them all excited during a play session, and then let the dog jump all over them because it’s so much fun. If you can’t get that one person on board with not allowing your dog to jump on them, you can still go for CGC. Just know that preparing for the test will probably take you longer.
If jumping excessively is the current norm, you may want to consider how modifying your environment could support your dog as you change your expectation.
For homes where your dog jumps on you when you first come home:
Can you crate your dog while you’re away?
Can you keep your dog in an area of the house behind a baby gate?
Can you keep your dog in a room or section of the house closed off from the entrance?
By controlling where your dog is physically located in your home, you allow yourself time to enter your home and go about your business without interacting with your dog. Your dog will know you’re home, but you’ll be ignoring him until he’s calm enough to say hello.
If you can’t physically restrict where your dog is while you’re away, create a new coming home routine:
Consider the usefulness of treats to reinforce good choices. Place treats in higher places in your home so your dog can’t get them, but you can.
When you come home, ignore your dog while he’s jumping around you.
If he makes contact jumping on you, turn away from your dog so his paws slide off of you.
Create a routine of things to do when you get home so your dog can see a pattern over time. Put your things away. Turn on your laptop or TV. Get a glass of water. Just try to create a short list of things to do when you get home, so that you have things to do instead of interacting with your dog right away.
Whenever your dog makes good choices to back away from you, keeps all four paws on the floor, stays behind an invisible line that you’ve pre-determined, or stares at your calmly, throw him a treat. Reinforce the behavior you want. Reinforce those good behaviors like you’re Santa Claus handing our presents on Christmas Day! Your dog will figure out what behaviors are earning him those treats.
Practice meeting family members
Once your dog is doing pretty well with remaining calm when you and your family come home, give him the next challenge. He needs to stay calm while you meet other members of your family or household.
Ask your spouse or roommate to help in five minute bursts for meet & greet training:
While you’re inside, put your dog’s leash on. Remember for the CGC Test, no retractable leads, so practice with a regular 6-foot leash.
Have your treat pouch ready full of the yummiest treats! Even though you cannot use treats during the test, you can use treats all through training.
Put your dog in a sit-stay. Remember to use a hand signal after your verbal command to help reinforce what you mean to your dog.
Consider practicing placing your dog in a sit-stay on both sides of you. You may find that sitting and staying on one side of you works better than the other.
Ask the person to approach you calmly. They should extend their hand in greeting and say something like “It’s nice to meet you.”
If your dog remains in the sit-stay as you shake hands, reward your dog with your marker word, like “Yes”, and give him a yummy treat.
If your dog gets up or moves toward the person, give them your verbal correction, like an “uh-uh.” Then place your dog right back into a sit-stay. Try again. If you need to keep your eyes on your dog, or keep your hand signal up to help your dog be successful, go for it. You’re practicing, so offer your dog all the help he needs, if he needs it.
Repeat this interaction a few more times. Your goal is to try to get 2-3 successful sit-stays in a row. Then end the training session on that successful note.
If your dog cannot hold the sit-stay while you “meet” another person, please don’t try to force it or make the training session longer. Instead, ask your dog to do something else that you know he’s awesome at. If your dog loves a certain trick, ask for that trick. Ask for that easy behavior 3x and give your dog plenty of praise. End the training session on that positive note.
Once you’ve achieved success over 2-3 training sessions, ask your spouse or roommate to vary up how they’re approaching you. They could add a spring to their step or enthusiasm to their voice. Don’t add too many quirks too quickly, but by pretending to be an overly friendly person, you’re preparing your dog for those people who squeal every time they see a dog.
Another way to up the game for your dog is to fade the treats while they’re holding the sit-stay as you “meet” the other person. Don’t put the treats away. Fade them. Give your dog a treat for his sit-stay randomly instead of every time he’s successful. Avoid creating a pattern your dog could predict.
Ask friends for their help
Once your dog has the hang of meeting family members or the people in your home, make the task just a little bit more challenging. Follow the same steps that you did when practicing at home with a family or household member, but begin to introduce friends in different environments.
Consider the following suggestions and your dog’s training temperament. Put the suggestions in the order of least difficult to most difficult for your dog.
Meet a friend your dog already knows at your house where your dog has been practicing his sit-stays while you shake hands with your friend.
Meet a friend your dog DOES NOT know at your house.
Meet a friend your dog already knows at your friend’s house.
Meet a friend your dog already knows out in a relatively quiet public place your dog knows.
Meet a friend your dog DOES NOT know at that same quiet public place.
Meet a friend your dog already knows in a busier public place.
Meet a friend your dog DOES NOT know in that same busier public place.
If you’re super social and your dog has met all of your friends, consider asking those friends to introduce you and your dog to one of their neighbors or another friend. Consider the casual acquaintances you may know through Facebook or other friends, and ask those people if they’d like to meet your dog.
Ask strangers for their help…awkward!
And here’s where I wonder about this first test task. Do you routinely shake the hands of strangers who ask you about your dog? Or ask if they could pet your dog? Most people I’m “meeting” don’t want to meet me at all. They want to meet my dog, so my expectation is that my dog will be calm when people approach me and then approach him for some pets.
Not going to lie. I have never asked a stranger to shake my hand while Bernie was in a sit-stay by my side. That would be awkward. Super awkward.
While I understand that if Bernie stays in a calm sit-stay by my side, I can carry on a polite conversation with a stranger which could include a handshake. The reality of this scenario, though, is that people want to pet my dog. If the test task involved a friendly stranger approaching and asking to pet my dog, that would seem to be a much more logical one test task item to me.
Since the AKC isn’t asking for my opinion (LOL!) on the efficacy of their test, I have two strategies for practicing meeting true strangers:
Go to places where people will want to meet your dog. Maintain expectations for your dog.
If someone asks to pet your dog, let them know that you’re training, so if your dog jumps or rushes at them, you’ll have to turn away. Most people will understand and try to cooperate. People like being helpful.
However, if the friendly stranger says that they’re okay with dogs jumping on them because their dog jumps all the time, I would decline letting your dog meet that person. The person who has no expectations for their own dog will have no expectations for yours either. I’d avoid them.
If your dog rushes forward toward the stranger, you could always give your dog a second chance to meet that person. However, if your dog keeps rushing at the person or jumping on them, you absolutely have to walk away. If the human is upset, too bad. You do not want to have a stranger petting your dog and reinforcing the very behavior you’ve been trying so hard to stop.Sign up for a CGC Class and make sure you meet people there. More than likely your trainer will have friendly strangers at class to help you practice. They’ll probably also set up practice scenarios so one owner goes from team to team asking to meet the owners.
Do not wait to practice meeting friendly strangers until your CGC Class, though. If your dog is super enthusiastic about meeting people, he may not be able to contain himself. Basically, you risk “wasting” the stranger piece of that friendly stranger.