Dog sports offer mental, physical, and team-building benefits – and they’re fun!
Dog sports are a great way to bond with your dog and give your canine companion exercise and mental stimulation. From the unbridled fun of dock diving to the quirkier but thrilling sport of skijoring, dog sports offer a fantastic opportunity to build and enhance the unique relationship we share with our best friend in a constantly evolving field of options. Training for and practicing a dog sport provides more than mental enrichment and physical exercise for your dog. When learning a dog sport together, you and your dog are actually learning how to work as a team.
Benefits of dog sports:
- Participating in a dog sport teaches you to understand your dog’s body language and how she reads and interprets yours, including your gestures and tone of voice. Repeated practice in the sport will enhance your communication and in most cases improve the bond between you.
- Many dog sports involve combinations of different skill sets and harness the power of dogs' amazing senses. For example, scent work can be a fantastic way to stimulate a dog's ability to learn through one of her most powerful attributes – the sense of smell. It fulfills one of your dog’s genetically driven urges with “dog appropriate” activities.
- Dog sports can give you a community of like-minded dog guardians who enjoy similar activities and hanging out with dogs. There are opportunities for friendships, getting involved, and maybe finding playmates for your dog.
- And let’s not forget the fun: the right sport for the right dog is fun for the dog, fun for you the handler, and fun for dog enthusiasts who watch.
Types of dog sports
Fortunately, we have many dog sport choices to choose from, and they all offer different goals, outlets, and challenges. Here are a few options:
- Agility - running an obstacle course together.
- Scent Work - finding a hidden item by smell.
- Rally Obedience - changing up traditional obedience trials.
- Flyball - racing to fetch by teams.
- Canine Freestyle - heeling to music.
- Dock Diving - leaping into the water to retrieve.
- Skijoring - skiing with help from your dog!
Training for dog sports
Each dog sport has unique tasks for your dog to learn, but a common goal is that your dog enjoys herself.
- Whatever activity you choose, all training should be rewarding and based on positive reinforcement.
- There should be no physical corrections or punishment, as that will impair learning, erode your dog’s trust, and possibly create behavior problems. You want your dog to gain confidence and enjoy what she is doing, so positive training is the way to go
- Your dog will be more successful at most dog sports if he has learned a few basics before beginning. For example, your dog should be able to pay attention to you, even with distractions around, and should be taught to come to you when called.
- Targeting is often used in dog sports to direct a dog where to go, be it in a heel at your side or when directed to leap over a series of jumps in agility.
Competition and fun
Participating in a dog sport with your dog should be a fun, confidence building, and bonding experience for both of you.
Never scold or punish your dog for making a mistake, because mistakes are learning opportunities and just part of the experience. Be careful not to put too much value on “'winning,” since your dog doesn’t understand medals, titles, or placement.
However well your dog performs, always act like she is a winner!
