Pets atHome

Dog Sports Will Keep You and Your Dog Young

By Amee Abel, CPDT-KA

Wondering if you and your dog are ready to try a dog sport? Any dog with good manners around other dogs is ready to learn a new sport. Try one this summer!

As we age, we get better at knowing how to learn. Yet, too often, we become complacent about what we know. We stop seeking opportunities to learn new things. Your adult or senior dog has also accumulated a wealth of knowledge about how to learn. Gerontologists agree that physical fitness and mental agility improve the more you stay active. So, this summer, why not explore the fountain of youth with your favorite four-footed companion? Learn a dog sport. Currently, dog sports are exploding in popularity. Many sports derive from our dog’s ancestral work: herding competitions, field trials for gun dogs, obedience and protection work for working breeds, tracking trials are examples of formal sports that have existed for many years. Newer sports that focus on more lighthearted play-focused activities include barn hunt (find the critters hiding in protected tubes,) lure coursing (chase a speedy lure around a field as if are chasing a bunny,) and parkour (climb up, on, and over typical natural or urban obstacles such as logs, streams, park benches and playground equipment). What makes all of these activities a “sport” is when an organization establishes rules by which your performance may be judged. Dog sports provide an outlet for city and suburban dogs to put their breed skills to work and blow off some energy. Unlike many human sports, most dog sports don’t focus on winning or losing — instead, competitors strive to earn

a qualifying score based >on the requirements of the sport.

You’ll often hear folks at a trial talking about getting the “Q.” Because you’re vying with the course, not the other dog and handler teams, it means that dog trials build a lot of camaraderie.

Find a sport that fits

Think about what your dog likes to do: Run? Sniff the garbage? Chase a ball or Frisbee? Follow a critter’s scent trail? Swim? And what do you like to do? Dance? Hike? Walk in the city? Swim? Perform? There’s probably a dog sport that can scratch whatever itch you and your dog have. Agility, for example, features a variety of obstacles that the dog learns to navigate at the handler’s request. The dog runs a course of obstacles such as jumps, tunnels, climbing an A-frame, or slaloming through a set of poles. Rally obedience challenges dog and handler to navigate a winding path that includes various obedience exercises such as sit, down, circle around the handler, stay and come, spiraling around cones and more. Trick competition sports include demonstrations of individual tricks (trick dog titles), or creating complex routines that tell a story (performance dog), or routines set to music (musical freestyle) or tricks done while throwing and catching Frisbees (disc dog.) Summer is a great time for swimming: take your dog to a pool or lake and try dock diving. Both dock diving and disc dog are great sports for dogs who love to retrieve, as is fly ball — which is a relay race for dogs. Each team member chases over hurdles to grab a ball and return it to their owner. Odor sports allow people to get an inkling of their dog’s amazing sense of smell. Whether you’re asking the dog to follow a trail (tracking) or to hunt for a critter (barn hunt), or to seek a specific scent hidden in a room or a vehicle (nosework) in these sports, the dogs take the lead. Handlers learn to “read” their dog’s indication that they’ve found the target. In the Monadnock Region, you can find dog sport classes at a variety of places: •Monadnock Humane Society in Swanzey, New Hampshire, offers classes in agility, rally obedience, tricks, musical freestyle, and competition obedience at all levels (training@humanecommunity.org). •Everything Dog in Keene, New Hampshire, offers nosework classes. (info@everythingdognh.com). •Lucky Dog Acres in North Salem, Massachusetts, has barn hunt lessons (luckydogevents@gmail.com). •American K9 Country in Amherst, New Hampshire, offers swimming and dock diving and a variety of obedience, agility and rally classes (amk9country@aol.com). •Prefer online lessons? Check out Fenzi Dog Sports Academy at www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com.

Wondering if you and your dog are ready to try a dog sport? Any dog with good manners around other dogs — that is, can stick with you on a leash without barking, lunging and trying to get to the other dogs — is ready to learn a new sport. Try one this summer!

Amee Abel is a certified professional dog trainer and the owner of Abel Dog Training, LLC in Keene, NH. She and her three dogs frequently compete in Rally, Obedience, Musical Freestyle, Tricks, and occasionally Agility. She teaches good manners and dog sports classes, offering individual in-home lessons and classes at Monadnock Humane Society. Her website is www.abel2train.com

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