AKC Family Dog - S.T.A.R. PUPPY
Bellatrix and Cosmo showing how nicely they can get along, riding in a backseat together, after a proper introduction and Cosmos puppy training!
Socialization Training Activity Responsibility
The S.T.A.R. puppy program is a great introduction to the American Kennel Club, Canine Good Citizen behaviors, and good manners for both the puppy and their parents! It’s super important to give a dog a steady start to their life, that’s why the S.T.A.R. puppy program is so important, it teaches behaviors and expectations that will prepare the puppy and their owner for the rest of their lives together. It will also be a wonderful introduction to the AKC, advanced obedience, and potentially even dog sports or other fun activities!
The S.T.A.R. puppy program is a minimum of 6 classes, typically performed over the course of 6-8 weeks. To receive credit and be inducted into the program, it’s required that pup and owner complete a minimum of 8 sessions together, and if missing any, they are able to make them up with permission from the instructor.
The program overall consits of 20 items that are covered and mastered. Some of these are purely on the owner, others have more to do with a well-tempered puppy, and some are meant to ready your dog to take the Canine Good Citizen exam when they’re older!
Owner Behaviors
Maintains puppy’s health
It’s important to get your dog regular veterinary exams, all of their required vaccines and keep them on a regular healthy diet while looking out for injury or illness!
A healthy puppy’s a happy puppy!
Owner receives Responsible Dog Owner’s Pledge
This pledge goes over all of the facets of responsible puppy raising such as health and safety, quality of life, and preventing infringement on others rights.
A pdf of this pledge can be accessed here: https://images.akc.org/pdf/starpuppy/lesson_RDO_pledge.pdf
Owner describes adequate daily play and exercise plan
At some point within the class (or maybe assigned for homework), your instructor will have everyone describe an adequate daily play and exercise plan suitable for their puppy’s age, breed, and activity level.
Owner and puppy attend at least 6 classes by an AKC Approved CGC Evaluator
Over the course of your puppy program, it’s important for you to attend a minimum of 6 classes. Without this, your pup will be unable to join the ranks of the other S.T.A.R. puppy graduates.
If the class you’ve joined offers more than 6 classes, you should take advantage of that and make sure you gain the most possible from the program!
Owner brings bags to classes for cleaning up after puppy
As part of your responsible dog owners pledge, you certify that you will not allow your dog to infringe on the rights of others and that includes keeping public areas clean from your dogs waste. Always be ready to clean up after them, whenever you leave your home.
Owner has obtained some form of ID for puppy
It’s important that your puppy has some form of ID on them any time they leave the house. This can come in the form of a microchip, an identification tattoo, a typical tag, or a gps tag/collar. These are all great methods of keeping your dog safe and identifiable and even better when used together!
Puppy Behaviors
Free of aggression toward people during at least 6 weeks of class
It’s important for a dog to be well-socialized, well-mannered, and overall friendly in order to interact within society. They don’t have to be seeking out constant interaction, or even really liking it, but there can’t be a strong dislike, fear, or aggression towards anyone in the class.
If your dog is presenting aggression or aggressive behaviors it’s important to address them immediately. It may be in your best interest to set up individual lessons to find the route of the problems and address them early. Once your puppy is able to show no human aggression through 6 weeks of class, they will be ready to pass the S.T.A.R. puppy program.
Free of aggression toward other puppies in class
Along with human aggression, it is important that a puppy isn’t showing any fear, reactivity, or aggression towards other puppies. It’s important for dogs to be able to socialize with others in a neutral manner. At a young age, they should be able to greet, play, or otherwise be near other dogs without issue. If you continue to create positive experiences, they will continue to be able to socialize in an appropriate manner, provided there are no other issues present.
Tolerates collar or body harness of owner’s choice
You’ll need to use a well-fitted collar or harness throughout the length of this course as well as in everyday life in order to have safe control over your dog. In many places it is illegal to have your dog off leash in undesignated areas. Along with that, it’s important to have something to attach tags to.
The other part of this is that your pup should be well adjusted to having their collar or harness on. They should be able to have it put on with no fear, and continue wearing it with no discomfort, biting, or attempt to remove it.
Owner can hug or hold puppy (depending on size)
This is a great exercise in body handling. Your puppy should be able to tolerate touching, picking up (if not too large), paw touching, ear handling, and mouth/tooth handling. All of these things are important of the overall grooming and care of your puppy, so regularly practicing handling them is extremely important.
Puppy allows owner to take away a treat or toy
A common problem that owners face is a dog developing food aggression or resource guarding. To prevent this, it’s important to play with your puppy, have times where you take the toy away from them, mess with their food a little bit (always in a positive way, making sure to give it back to them and not tease them), and look out for undesirable behaviors.
Pre-Canine Good Citizen Test Behaviors
Allows petting by a person other than the owner
This can happen in any position, your evaluator is just looking for your dog to be content with petting. It’s ok if they like it and lean into it, or if they just take it nicely, what we don’t want to see is jumping up or shy away too much from people.
Grooming and handling
This part is super important! We want to see your dog be able to be handled by their owner, and eventually others for grooming, ear cleaning, or brief veterinary exams.
Walks on a leash
For this part of the exam, you will be asked to walk in a straight line with your puppy. Encouragement, treats, toys, or praise are all welcome as necessary, but we’re looking for your dog to follow you for approximately 15 steps on a leash.
Walks by other people
We will then test that your dog can walk past another person 5 feet or more away without distress, overexcitement, reactivity, or other unwanted behaviors.
Sits on command
For both sit and down on command, treat use is allowed as a lure at this stage, though gradually weaning away is highly encouraged. Your dog should understand the meanings of both commands and be able to perform these position changes with ease.
Down on command
Comes to owner
In this test, we’re looking for your dog to come from 5 feet away, on their leash, when they are called by their owner.
Reaction to distractions
Different distractions will be provided from 15 feet away to provide your dog an opportunity to recognize, evaluate, and react appropriately. It’s important to remember that how you react will inform your dog of how to move forward. If you show fear, hesitation, or being overly startled, then your dog will too. This will cause barking, over distraction, or other reactions. If you are calm and confident, then your dog will emulate that confidence and get over distractions or scary environments easier.
Stay on leash with another person
This is a great precursor to leaving your dog alone. Starting off by being able to comfortably leave your dog on a leash with a stranger and just walking 10 steps away is what’s asked for this test, but every owner should work to expand on that later. There will be times such as at the groomers, veterinarians, or daycares that you might be leaving your dog with someone else and leaving them. Slowly building up from a few steps and maintaining a positive demeanor in your dog is what will help prevent separation behaviors from presenting with your dog.