A lovely evening last night. It was the final session in the classes Boola and I have been attending for our Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Award. I've written before about our lovely tutor who is so kind and patient with us all, and the wonderful variety of dogs, all shapes and sizes. Last night was our exam. I spent yesterday going over my notes (yes, I am a compulsive over-achiever) and making sure I had brought everything needed. I even had some special treats for Boola - some roast chicken which he is guaranteed to eat. As a typical greyhound, Boola comes to class every week with his own sheepskin rug, so that rather than lying on a cold, hard floor he can recline in comfort and watch the other dogs get excited. It's actually been quite handy, as it means Boola has a natural "anchor" for doing a stay, and once settled is very likely to remain stretched out and relaxed for a long time.

For the test, we had to answer questions about basic dog welfare and health, show our dog was wearing collar and tag, and that we knew how to take these off/put them on. We had to demonstrate grooming our dog, and show that we could examine our dog all over including their eyes, teeth and ears. Our dogs had to show that they could walk nicely on the lead, without pulling at other dogs and could wait while we went through a door or a gate. We needed to show that we understood our responsibilities for cleaning up after our dog, and that we were carrying poo bags. Our dogs had to come when called, when doing a simple recall exercise and they also had to do a "Stay" for one minute while we were away from them. With Boola settled on his snuggly rug, the Stay was great, and he thought the recall exercise was a fabulous game since he got to run around the hall between me and the tutor, wagging his tail. He was obviously saying in doggy terms "Hey, this is much more interesting and fun than all that boring stuff we were doing earlier on the lead. We should be doing more of this!"

Finally, we got the news that we had all passed. We all received a certificate and Boola got a beautiful green and white rosette. The scheme uses the wonderful Wallace and Gromit as symbols so they are in the centre of the rosette, and on the certificate as well as the literature for the scheme. Having got these home, he is now accumulating a respectable little collection of rosettes, what with this and his recent adventures at the dog show. We took some pics (one shown above) at the end, and I gave our tutor a thank you card that I had made for her, as I wanted to express my gratitude.

I've particularly enjoyed doing the classes for a number of reasons. It's been lovely to meet other dog owners, and Boola has been a wonderful ambassador for greyhounds as pets - there is still quite a bit of ignorance about what wonderful pets they can make once they have retired from racing. Having three dogs at home, means that one on one time with them can be quite limited. Doing the classes has been a lovely way to strengthen the bond between him and me and increase my confidence with him. The tutor, Caroline, has been brilliant and given us lots of good ideas and information about training and handling our dogs that is and will be useful in the future, not just with Boola but with our other two, Andy and Booty.

Also, on a broader level, I've been putting information about stray dogs and their management up on my other website over at Houndmistress (see link in sidebar). This of course deals with the fallout when dog ownership goes wrong - the strays, the dumping etc and sadly the numbers of dogs who are killed each year. As a part of the website, I also want to show the flipside - to encourage, promote and demonstrate the pleasures of responsible dog ownership. A course like this cannot guarantee that, but it certainly does demonstrate the care and commitment of a willing owner to do something very positive to ensure their dog is treated well and that the owner understands their wider responsibilities to society. Having done the course myself, I now feel able to talk about it, write about it and promote it wholeheartedly as part of the overall drive to improve standards of responsible dog ownership in Wales.

I'm not yet sure if I will want to do the silver award with Boola, but we've got plenty of time to have a think about it.