There's More To Life - 5 Dog Sports to Try Today

We are led to believe in this world that the normal thing to do is to walk your dog, and the other week we wrote a blog about just that (if you haven't read it, here it is https://www.britishinstituteofcaninescience.org/post/should-you-walk-your-dog)

In that post we discussed some more exciting things you can try on a day to day basis, but today we want to discuss some official sports you can try with your dog. If you are sat reading this thinking 'oh I'm not good enough for that' then stop thinking that way. Dog sport done with the right people caters to people of all levels. We have run multiple sport clubs in multiple disciplines in the past and we have had people turn up with their first dog, with no clue, no equipment and nothing but a dream. This is often how people start their journey and it is completely normal and absolutely fine.

So with that in mind, let's dive into it.

Agility - Something you can do at an official club all over the world, or something you can try at home in your garden. Agility is a great exercise for your dog both mentally and physically. Make sure to break things down so your dog can properly learn, and have a look into the different levels available moving forwards. Agility remains one of (if not the) most popular dog sports globally and is absolutely accessible for any dog owner. Get yourself a little jump, or some weave poles and you can have lots of fun for very little outlay.

Advanced Obedience - There are so many advanced obedience behaviours to choose from. The list really is endless. You could teach your dog a competition style heelwork where they look up at you, perfectly positioned next to your leg whilst you walk. You could teach a formal retrieve, where the dog retrieves an item and sits calmly in front of you before handing it back. You could teach high distraction stays where your dog stays in position with high levels of distraction going on around them. The list is absolutely endless and you can make the behaviours as easy or as difficult as you like. There are also competitions for advanced obedience if you wish to look that deeply into it.

Man Trailing or SAR - Man trailing is the art of tracking a person over various terrains and is a huge hobby for a lot of dog owners. Beginners are often drawn to this sport and its a great place to start before looking into higher level activities in similar areas. There are also true search and rescue dogs that work at a higher level and in multiple disciplines. You could train your SAR dog to open area search, trail, rubble search or even water search. If you want to look into higher level competition for this the IRO hold titled competitions in Open Area Search, Tracking, Man Trailing, Rubble Search, Water Search and Avalanche Search. We are considering opening an IRO competition club in the near future, so if you are in the UK let us know!

Scent Work - The art of finding a given odor with the nose. This is precisely what professional drug dogs, or explosive dogs are doing but you can do this in a much more fun manner without the pressures of operational work. In the UK we have Scentwork UK where dogs find a multitude of different everyday scents including clove and truffle oil. Your dog will search for an odor in a given space and this is an amazing exercise for them mentally. If you want to see a tired dog, just go do a scent work session and you'll see something you've never seen before!

Canicross or Bikejor - Running or biking with your dog. You can do this for fun on your local trails, but there are also official races where owners and dogs either run or bike with their dog pulling them along in special harnesses. Think about something akin to the huskies you see pulling sleds and you will be about there. This is brilliant exercise for both dog and owner and can be so rewarding when the teamwork starts bringing the times down more and more.

There are an endless list of sports you can do with your dog, but these five were chosen because of the ease of accessibility. Anybody can get going with any of them for very little outlay and they aren't going to cause any problems if you get a few things wrong along the way.

We have been training our dogs in competitive disciplines for over a decade now and it is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do alongside your four legged friend. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a go. You won't regret it.

The Team

British Institute of Canine Science