We Passed Our Exam!!!

Anneke

Honored Member
Yay!!! We passed our Social Housedog exam today!!!(like canine good citizen)
After the first part of the exam, I was sure we failed... I was soooo nervous!!! Jinx didn't pay any attention to me in the heelwork, she did walk with me, but with her head turned away from me... It was rubbish!! And this is one of the parts that was most important...
But the rest of the exam went fine.
So I am actually very proud of my girl, because she did a lot better than me:D
 

Anneke

Honored Member
Yes it does sound funny, doesn't it:D
It is just a very basic obedience level. Come when called, interaction with humans, interaction with dogs, down stay with distraction, some heelwork, and some reactiontests on sound and a strange visual object(umbrella suddenly presented), food refusal(food is put on plates, like dogfood, some treats and some bread, you have to walk past this food without your dog eating it) First you have to do a series of exercises on your own(with dog of course) and then you have to do some within a group(6-7 dogs and owners)
There were 19 of us. Unfortunately 2 did not pass, due to some really bad heelwork.
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
wow, that sounds challenging, imo!!

Maybe they should rename the prize as "Super Housedog!"
yes, "Social Housedog" makes me picture a dog at the door, greeting his friends all arriving for a party!!
 

Anneke

Honored Member
Yes, it does sound like that:D
But it's a pretty sreious thing to have. Because it is linked to the dogs chipregistration. So it is proof that the dog has done the basic obedience training at some point in time.
Something that could be helpfull in some instances, like with Cooper atacking another dog.
I could proof that he did have training and had social skills, something the other person could not proof.
Ofcourse I did take responsibility for my dogs action, but as this woman threatened me and said my dog was completely out of control, and ofcourse not mentioning that her dog was offleash too and not completely innocent, it was helpfull, that I could proof to the police that I AM working with my dog.
Also I need this exam to level up in the dutch obedience. I don't know yet if I will continue, but it was fun doing it.
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
wow, wait, the dogs who do pass this exam, get a microchip inserted ??
and yes, that test sure does sound impressive to me, anyway!!

and wow, great points you made, Anneke, now THAT is thinking ahead!! Great!
 

Anneke

Honored Member
No, most dogs have a chip. It is not yet a law, but they are working on it. Most breeders chip the pups at the age of 6 weeks. The chipnumber then gets registred to the owners name.
So when you apply for this exam, you have to give the chipnumber, so the exam gets linked to that number.

If you want to compete or take exams with the FHN(federation of dogsports in holland) you have to have your dog chipped. They don't accept any other form of identification, like some old dogs still have a tattoo number in their ear, but they don't accept this any more.

Well, the test is pretty easy for the average dog. It is mostly everyday stuff, that any dog needs to be able to handle in every day life.
But for the agressive or fearfull dog, it can be a tough one.
I failed the first time I did the exam with Cooper, as he had a run in with another not so friendly dog. He lunged at this dog, that had been challenging him all day. And we were send off the field immidiately. Lunging is an absolute NO NO in this test.
The other dog wasn't so obvious in his aggression, so he was allowed to continue, as the examiner had not seen what caused Cooper to lunge.
Fortunately for us, my instructor did see it and she had a word with the examinor, so they failed the test also.
This guy was really getting on my nerves, as he had been following me around even when his dog growled at Cooper. His dog was constantly staring at Cooper, so I kept moving away from them to create distance. But the owner didn't notice this AT ALL:mad:
So when we had to do the group test, where you have to do some heelwork with a group and passing each other, Cooper was all fired up. I managed to steer clear of the dog and his owner for a while, but suddenly he popped up in front of me, coming straight at me. And thats when Cooper lunged...

Second time we passed, but only because my instructor managed to get me into the group with only female dogs(of which some were in heat, that's why they were in a separate group;)) And being the charmer he is, we had no problems there and we passed:D Little cheating:ROFLMAO:
Of course this was well before Cooper's behaviour got really bad. I think he was about two years old then. His behaviour wasn't all that bad, back then.
 

Anneke

Honored Member
Hmm I have no clue... The rules are listed in a pdf file on the FHN site, but I haven't seen it in english.
 
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