Dog Sports
by Greg Hollen
There are many different activities you can do with your dog. From obedience
competition to earth dog trials to Schutzhund. All have different
requirements and different organizations have different requirements. The
American Kennel Club is allowing purebred and mixed breed dogs to participate in their
competitions while the United Kennel Club continues to allow limited registration and
participating in all of their sports by mix-breed dogs.
Schutzhund competition is open to any dog able to perform the required
tasks. Schutzhund is a German sport consisting of three phases: Obedience,
tracking and protection. Fly ball ( a relay race) is a fast paced sport as
is lure coursing for sight hounds (i.e. whippets, greyhounds, salukis, etc).
Tracking is another sport geared towards using a dog’s unique scenting
ability to find a trail and follow it.
Dog World magazine and Dog Fancy magazine always have listings for many
types of competitions. If you are on line, go to
www.IndianaWorkingDogs.com
and you can follow the links to The American Kennel Club and the United
Kennel Club for more information.
There are clubs for herding, weight pulling, coon hunting, field trials for
spaniels, pointers, agility, obedience, conformation, tracking, schutzhund,
earth dog, terrier trial, retriever and just about any club you would want.
This short list hasn’t covered the breed specific clubs that will hold
trials for what the breed was originally used for.
The Australian Shepherd club holds herding trials while the West Highland
White Terrier club will hold earth dog trials. The different sports
available for you and your dog are widely varied. Finding a sport that suits
your dog’s personality and temperament will help your dog be a better
companion and fulfill the desires and drive that has been instilled in your
dog through of years of breeding. Good luck in the dog sport world.
