AKC clubs/sports for Retrievers??

Question

Does anyone know of some good AKC sports for retrievers? what have you enjoyed doing most?

Answer 1

Retriever field trials,agility, obedience, rally tracking..
A club member in my agility club made the national agility (USDAA) finals with a flatcoat.
In order of fun agility then rally then obedience - not having a retreiver I can't put retriever trials in order.... or tracking either

Answer 2

I know that, in addition to Obedience and Agility, the AKC also does Field Trials for Retrievers. Unfortunately, I don't know any more about them, but I know there are a few 'regulars' around here who might. I will star the question so that hopefully they will catch it.

In the mean time, here's the AKC's pages for Retriever Trials:
http://www.akc.org/events/field_trials/retrievers/index.cfm

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Conformation
Obedience
Agility
Rally-O
Tracking
Retriever Field Trials
Retriever Hunting Tests

There are also non-AKC events like:
Flyball http://www.flyball.org/
Disc Dogs (frisbee) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_dog
Freestyle (dancing with dogs) http://www.canine-freestyle.org/
Dock Dogs (diving off docks) http://www.dockdogs.com/
Scent hurdling (similar to flyball, is now a rare sport mostly seen in Western Canada).

Answer 4

Look for a retriever Field trial/Hunt test club in your aria, there is bound to be one.
You will want to get involved locally, develop some friends, and form a training group of 3-5 people (be careful not to pick one that wants to train 20 of his dogs to your 1 dog.
Here are a couple of places for you to start.
http://www.retrievertraining.net/forums/
http://www.working-retriever.com/

There are events up the gazoo but there is traveling involved.
(I know cuz I have gone to enough of them to stay broke for 50 years)