What do you do with your dog...?

Question

So I am wondering what other people here do with their dogs. There are so many things you can train your dog for such as obedience, agility, frisbee, herding, flyball, tracking, dock diving, earthdog, hunting, retrieving, sledding... and there's more.

So what do you do with your dog and why did you decide to pursue this?

Do you compete in that venue or just do it for fun?

Is it something you wanted to do with your dog because it was bred for that purpose or the breed happens to do really well at it?

Have you yet earned any titles on your dog in any particular area?

Lots of great answers so far!

Dachshund Gal- right now, we have done a couple agility classes, practiced in rally-obedience and really in to doing herding training and obedience... with the hope of being ready for our first obed trial soon. I've done some obedience matches and we're getting better each time! I'm hoping to take up tracking this winter too.

Answer 1

I was hooked on dog shows the first time I went in the ring! That was 15 yrs ago...
I've competed in obedience, done therapy work, public education...most recently Rally and herding. I believe an active dog is a happy dog. I also believe that dogs should be able to do what they were bred to do...Going and competing with my dogs (and others dogs) is my life...:-)))

Answer 2

Unfortunately I'll never be able to do most of those things with Willow. I'd love to and as a Shepherd she should be worked so I'm training her in Obedience but only at home. Thanks to the idiot who thought keeping Shepherds and breeding them as soon as they were in heat, (even though her colouring excluded her, or any similar pups,from ever being a show dog) She's far too weak in the back legs to do more than the minimum amount of exercise!
She's a lot stronger now than the half starved specimen she was in May but I don't know if she'll ever be strong enough to do competition work.
I love working my dogs, I think it makes the bond between owner and dog so much greater and in the past have had three who did very well in local Obedience. Never bothered going beyond that level but now I'm near retirement perhaps with another dog and more time I could try again.
Good luck to you with whatever you choose for your dog and let me know when you make it to Crufts!!!!!

Answer 3

Have trained in obedience forever (well, since I was a wee babe :) - 50+ years... in the last decade I went off into schutzhund just to torture myself a bit more since I was getting old and my body wasn't hurting enough :) I have shown in conformation since the late 70s, obedience since the 50s and schutzhund since the beginning of this decade... have titled in all those. I compete in the still, all three, and do it only because it is fun and I am half crazy.. I don't do schutzhund because the breed was bred for this sport but it does keep their minds and bodies occupied - no breed was actually bred specifically for any of these sport scenarios but any activity you do with your dog is a learning potential so when training for these things I can gain a lot of insight into various characteristics of my dogs. My current girl is AKC/UDC/IABCA Int'l Ch., ROM, CD, D-CD, BH, SchA, SchI, G-FFB (D-ZTP), ATT, STT and if I ever get my knees working well again, we will actually do some tracking and go for further schutzhund titles as well as maybe further in obedience but then I have a couple of younguns that I need to get out and work with also...

Answer 4

We dont compete. All we do is play.

Out in the world we mostly go hiking. He carries a back pack with his food and water, I carry everything else. He enjoys a good camping trip and loves swimming, so we try to find lakes to camp around.
Around the house:We play a lot of frisbee, and fetch-which is an entirely different game for him depending on which ball we use-he prefers the bouncy one.
We also do tons of tug-o-war. So much that Im forced to replace the rope toys about 2 times a month.

Im hoping to get him into pulling eventually, but the money isnt there yet. One day Id like him to be able to pull a cart full of our camping gear.

Basically Ive just watched the activities that he enjoys and have tried to expand on them. He loves to show off his strength, so Im trying to go in that direction now as well.

Answer 5

Well, I have 2 therapy dogs, Newfoundland and golden retriever. They go to hospitals and kids get to pet them and it makes them feel all good. ANyways, I did this because my dog wasn't fast enough t do agility, which is what I really wanted them to do. This was also the only thing someone at my age, 12, could really do.
I have another dog. She is a Newfoundland. SHe is realy fast. I signed her up for agility and we have only been at it for 1 year. We have already recieved a trophy for 1st place in my age limit. The same newfoundland that does agility also does water rescue/retrieving. Newfoundlands are water dogs so she was made for this. The swimming not only gets her excercised, but it also builds up her muscles in her legs which helps her run faster. We do the water rescue with only other Newfoundlands. She has gained first in 2 competitions so far.

Answer 6

I've done beginning obedience. She's not titled, but I've been debating intermediate obedience (leading to her CGC, if that counts) and agility. She's a jumper dog, I'm sure she'd love it. I'd probably do it just for fun, but you should've seen how proud I was of her graduating level 1 obedience - I totally paraded her around the store afterward and bought her a new toy.

Answer 7

Well, I don't really do anything competitively with my dog, but we do some stuff at home for fun. I do obedience training with her. I like it because she is well behaved, and she likes it because she gets little training treats, so that's a win-win. I'd love to do some more stuff like tracking or the annual coon hunt in Paris, TX though. I've always loved hounds, so I'd probably be doing the coon hunts because I'm going to adopt another dog and it'll probably be a hound.
Is there anything you do?

Answer 8

We havent been in competitions but we have trained our blue merle aussie in disc training.
We do various tricks with him (back vault, agility through legs, and timed distance catches).. and he loves it.

We got into it just because we both love watching the competitions and it is one of the activities that we knew we would enjoy as well. Also, as a herding dog he has lots of energy, loves to run and jump and he always loved his frisbees.

We dont compete not only because we want to keep it extremely fun for all of us, but also because we have 2 other dogs that arent into that training and we like to keep them all together.

Answer 9

I'm training my Papillon puppy for agility. He's really good at it, I want to get is ILP from AKC so I can compete with him. Paps are sensitive to anesthesia, so I'm waiting a little longer until I neuter him to make sure it's safe, but once I have proof of neutering I can get is ILP and really start the fun. :-D I also want to look into obedience trials and flyball with him; Paps are fast, smart, and obedient so I think he'll go a long way with this stuff.

Answer 10

our dogs compete in rally, agility, obedience, and tracking. i'm going to try hunt testing my youngest lab, but am having a lot of trouble finding trainers that won't use an e-collar to do it.

my eldest lab is nationally rank in rally, my mix breed is currently showing in CPE and NADAC - we'll try USDAA at the close of the year, the basset is training for tracking, and the youngest lab is a work in progress. all have their CGCs.

competing is a load of fun, but training for it is more fun. it started as something more to do with my dogs and became an addiction. i picked my last puppy from teh shelter b/c of her drive and want to work. she hasn't let me down.