Playing with Your Dog

Playing fetch is not your only option these days when you want to interact in a fun way with your dog. The interest in canine sports is growing by leaps and bounds and new sports are cropping up almost every year. There is everything from the age-old Dogsledding, to the relatively new sports of Frisbee and Agility.

For the active enthusiast, there's Agility. What a fun sport! Even watching it is entertaining. The dogs and handlers may train hard, but it is still a recreation-based sport, requiring your dog to go through an obstacle course of tunnels, weave poles and jumps. Agility is a terrific way to truly mesh with your dog as you both learn to understand the slightest signals and body language.

Frisbee seems to catching on quickly. The idea in Freestyle Frisbee is to teach your dog to jump in increasingly complicated ways to catch the disc and land properly. Not as easy as sounds, but terrific entertainment. There's also the standard catch and retrieve, where competitors have a time limit to complete as many throws as possible.

While some sports require extensive training, and years of dedication, there are sports out there that are more for fun than titles. Basic obstacle courses are great fun to try with your dog, and much easier when there isn't a judge with a timepiece. I've utilized the jungle gyms at children's parks and had my dogs climb up slides, ladders and go through tunnels. Just be sure to check the local by-laws, make sure dogs are allowed at the parks in your area and remember to scoop your poop!

If your dog is ball-driven (Gotta have that ball! Let me have that ball!), Flyball might be the sport for you. A ball is held in a spring-loaded ramp at the end of a run peppered with jumps. The dog has to go over the hurdles, hit the ramp hard with his paws to release the ball, grab the ball and go over the hurdles again, and back to his handler, at which point the next dog in the team is sent out. The team with the best time wins. Any size of dog can participate, and any breed or mix. It is a great sport to compete in, or join just for fun.

While dog sports are a great source of entertainment, the benefits are extensive as well. Exercise, for both you and your dog, social interaction with other dogs and people with the same interests, what could be better?