Felissa is dog-mom to Davinia and Indiana and the creator of the Two Little Cavaliers blog. She writes regularly about adopting rescues, cooking for your canine, keeping you pet healthy, and heaps of other dog-related things. You can follow along on Facebook or Twitter.
We all love our dogs. They are an integral part of our lives. We care for them, feed them, keep them healthy, let them sleep in our beds, and all around spoil them. They have beds and blankets all over the house to sleep on, toys, and treats to keep them busy but what about something to test their smarts, endurance, obedience, jumping skills, or tracking skills. Most dogs are born with something they are good at and they love to do. If we as their owners give those special skills a little bit of attention and nurturing our dogs would have something they love to do and we will have a new activity to add to your life.
Here are a few that might interest you depending on your lifestyle.
Dog Agility
This dog sport is best for active dogs and their active owners. Dog Agility is a competitive dog sport that takes place on a specially created obstacle course. Dogs are trained from about 2 years old (some start earlier leaving out certain obstacles that could potentially injure their young bodies) to take jumps, travel through tunnels, go up and then down a see saw and wave through a series of poles . As the dog’s owner you basically run the course with them telling them which way to go and which obstacle to tackle next. Trials and classes can be found both indoors and out depending on the time of year and the area you live
Dock Dogs
If you and your dog loves the water this activity is for you. Even notice your dog taking a flying leap into the swimming pool or off the dock at the lake? This activity takes those leaps and hones them until dogs can take great flying leaps into a marked pool. As the dog’s owner you would throw a toy off of a dock in an attempt to get the dog to jump as far as possible. Distance is measured at the place where the tail base meets the water. I guess you could set up a giant pool indoors but with the splash that some of the dogs make things would get messy pretty quickly.
Canine Freestyle
If you like to dance or at least move to music and you see your dog doing the same when you turn the radio up Canine Freestyle might be for you. It is a choreographed musical performance by a dog and their owner. Pretty much any movement is allowed during Canine Freestyle unless it could harm your dog. Your dog will need at least a basic command of obedience to learn the dance but those verbal cues will give way to non -verbal signs for you for your dog to perform a specific movement. This activity generally takes place indoors but can sometimes be found at outdoor events.
Is your dog particularly sporty?