Does anyone know if they just hold test days for these? Without having to go to the classes I mean?

I would like to do them but really can't afford any classes, pretty sure (hopefully ) that Kofi could do gold, probably not Shy cos of the other dogs, but Shy could do the Bronze....but do any places let you just turn up and take a test (or more than one test) on the day?

Sometimes dog shows have Bronze, not sure about silver and Gold as they take alot longer to do and need roadwork and other things you couldn't do at a dog show.

Yeah thats true, it would be fab if the KC just put on special days where they just hold the tests. I bet lots of people would like to do it but can't afford to pay silly amounts for lessons....especially for the bronze

I have emailed the club I did Coin and Starsky's Gold tests at to see if they would let me just go and do a test when they have one on...they can only say no.

B ronze tests are often held in conjunction with companion shows, but cna be held alone (I often do them when I'm running the gundog and other courses).
Now if you find somewhere for this scent day/weekend we could also do some Good cits testing as I cna test all the levels..

Ooh thats a good idea! I will get onto it again, are you allowed to take more than one test in a day? Say, if you passed Bronze, can you go on to do Silver? Have a feeling that we had some people do silver and gold in one day but this was years ago so it might have changed now.

My old club has said that I can go and do all my tests there without having to do any of the classes..

You don't have to learn them in classes - but the examiner must be qualified.

So.... You can download the requirements for each level from the KC site, teach them to your dogs, and you could then hire a qualified examiner as a 1:1 for an hour or so to take your tests - they do NOT have to be in a group session. Or you could get together with a couple of others to split the cost.

They do have to be taken in order though - as in, you can't take Silver without having first passed Bronze. Well-trained dogs should easily be able to do Bronze and Silver on the same day if they are good enough, although do figure in that two tests in succession might be too much work for some.

The Gold is quite a bit higher than the others, and from what I gather, is better taken separately.

I took Bronze with Merlin and passed, so joined the Silver test just afterwards and to my astonishment we passed that too - Both on the same day

However that was when he was just under a year old - his Kevination kicked in just afterwards and he became too stressed for group classes, so we did a bit of Gold training before I took him out.

He is now almost 6, and I have always thought about bringing him up to Gold standard and having a private test, but have preferred to work instead on more pressing issues such as his unreliability around other dogs, teenagers, bicycles etc. It's nice to have something on paper... but training the individual dog to its environment and smoothing off its rough edges is way more important, I feel.

Just have to add though - I did KCGCS for more reasons than just training my dog - I lived in rented accommodation and felt I needed some way to prove to landlords that I was a responsible dog owner.

As it happened an incident occurred where I did need to speak up for him, and his KC Puppy, Bronze and Silver certificates really did help