The One Where Mr. B Becomes a Canine Good Citizen

One of our all-time most popular posts was this one about Mr B who tries so hard. Unlike Miss M, who could run away to become a circus dog, Mr. B really isn't the brightest pooch.
When we first adopted Mr B he took a 101 class. It took him almost all the class sessions to learn to lay down. And we knew Mr. B was satisfied just being Mr. B.

I saw that Miss M's former training group was offering the CGC (Canine Good Citizen) class and test. The test evaluates whether a dog can be good mannered in a variety of situations. It's something nice to have because it gives them official status for being an overall good canine ambassador. The test covers:
Can they remain calm if a stranger comes to pet them?
Are they comfortable being brushed and handled by a stranger?
Can they meet another dog and handler face-to-face without reacting?
Can they walk comfortably on a loose leash and in a crowd?
Can they be left alone while their handler leaves the room without showing anxiety?
Do they have a reliable down stay and recall?
How do they handle unexpected noises and distractions?
Sure Mr. B does well in crowded and crazy situations (have you seen this video!),but I wasn't sure how he would do in an actual testing situation where you aren't allowed to use treats.

 We took a 3 week practice class with the final week being the test. Taking the class was helpful because beyond practicing the elements, it gets the dogs accustomed to the classroom which is full of all kinds of interesting dog smells. Luckily for us, Mr. B's calm nature led him to do well. Our most difficult task, ironically, was the loose-leash walking. Which was actually my fault. The evaluator gives you instructions to walk and turn around (left turn, about turn, halt) and I was actually the one who couldn't figure out the walking directions.
The other difficult part of the test was that we were testing with many other dogs in a small classroom, and all the other dogs were along the perimeter of the room. There were a couple of dogs who came just for the test, and one dog who came just that day was super-amped giving play bows, vocal cues, lunges, and hard stares to the other dogs in the room during the test, especially when they had to pass by him as they were testing. It was just a bit frustrating because we had seen how hard all of the dogs had worked during our class sessions, and it was clear this dog was an unanticipated distraction.
We are just very proud of our Mr. B, and excited that we all have letters behind our names now (Miss M became CGC a few years ago).

How has everyone else's experiences been with CGC? Is it something you've taken? Or are you thinking of taking it in the future?