Training the Supervised Separation for CGC

I teach it as a sit-stay.  My guys tend to need a job, to focus their attention on, to keep them out of trouble.  Being told to sit & stay is that job.  It does take time & patience to work them up to being left alone but in short increments, it's very doable.

Cher was evaluated for the second time last spring.  The evaluator was very complimentary of Cher but did comment that she was not a very social dog because "she never even came to visit while you were away."  I was thrilled to hear that because, Cher, left to her own devices, usually means bad things.  Think barking, groaning, & obsessive nose punching....  It was just much easier to give her a job to do during that time.

I do it like Amanda.  Separation and GSDs just do not mix.  All of mine must be trained as an obedience exercise.  Pan was easier because he is naturally more social.  Nikon passed with some very purposeful training but I doubt I could just take him to the club and pass a CGC today because of this exercise.  All of the other exercises I feel like my dogs should be able to pass any day, anywhere, but this one is always annoying to me.  I would never hand my dog over to a stranger and walk out of sight!

 Lies, I agree with you. I feel like everything else, it's just a necessity if you plan to take your dog out in public. I have never walked off and left any dog with a complete stranger, and I can't perceive a situation where I might do it. However, he's been left with people we know, he likes them if he's with me, and he will still cry. When we went to the Flyball tournament, I left him with my best friend, and he cried the first few minutes I was gone. He knows her well, and sees her at least once a week. He gets excited when he sees her car come up,and he runs to her when she gets out.  Being that she is awesome, she's come in and taken him out for me- he is perfectly fine if I was never there to begin with. Maybe I should see if he gets upset if he's with her and she leaves him with someone, and have her handle him for the test.

So basically, you're suggesting a sit stay, and I just leave him out of sight, without another person? I think he might actually do that for a bit, I'm not sure. The idea of testing him with an organization that doesn't do it failed, since the lady who I was supposed to meet never showed up.

For the test you will have to leave him with a person (and must do this exercise to pass) but I always tell that person not to break my dog's down/sit, just hold the leash.

 Right, I know I have to leave him with a person (cause he already failed once at it). But what you're saying, for training, is to train him without another person involved?

Initially, I train it without another person involved.  Once I know that my dog can hold their stay, while I'm out of the room for a certain period of time (usually 2-3 minutes) I add in distractions.  In Luke's case, another person holding his leash while he's in a sit stay definitely qualifies as a distraction.

I, too, ask the evaluator not to distract my dog while I'm away.  He/she has a job to do, & they don't need someone distracting them from doing what I've asked of them.

SO! I took everyone's advice and decided to do some more proofing. Since I lack access to the many different sizes in dogs, I decided to head to the pet store and work there. They have a resident chinchilla and a few hamsters which make great distractions. Specially Trey the Chin since he LOVES to  [url=www.testking.net/testking-642-999.htm]642-999 vce exam[/url] torment the dogs. Well when we got there it was fairly quiet so I did some downs, sits, finishes and heeling through the aisles. Then it started to get a bit busy (mostly small dogs but there was a greyhound and a basset that Maze had never seen before). We did some meet and greets with the easy walk harness on, She did GREAT! No growling, kinda calm walk in (lol), fur was down thou she was quite attentive. She play bowed to the greyhound, thou she did bark at the basset when he barked and Maze realized that he has a big dog bark. LOL. I .