Hello all - I have a 6 year old Berner female, Hola, and a little kitty of unknown age. We live in Manhattan, which is actually a wonderful city for big dogs: we city people spend a lot of time with our animals because our homes are so small! My current project is trying to get Hola ready for her Canine Good Citizen certification. She has a weakness (my fault) for jumping on people, including CGC assessors. We're working on our "Sitting Quietly for Petting" - which doesn't sound so hard but is a challenge for us.

Wow! a berner in Manhattan! We live in rural BC and have only seen Manhattan in SATC (my fave show!) and I can hardly imagine a berner there, but I think it's wonderful you have one. Very cool! I bet it would be a great city for a berner, the most social of dogs! Good luck with your Canine Good Citizen cert. I also want to get our dogs certified but I'm afraid I'm a bit lazy and they are not always so good at being very polite in new situations, especially with new dogs. Oh, they're nice, just over-rumbunctious. About the jumping up; we had some trouble with our girl Shady with this but no more. Here's what I did: I never acknowledged her at all, just turned away with arms crossed and said calmly, "sit" and as soon as she sat, she got attention. You could also give a treat for sitting. Once in a blue moon, our other dog Leo will jump up when I come home: I kind of push him away without saying anything, then tell him to sit, and as soon as he sits, I pet and greet him. If he tries to jump up again, he gets the cold shoulder. It works!