Top 5 Fun Puppy Sports for a Healthy and Happy Pup

In addition to strengthening your relationship, puppy sports help you and your dog become more fit!

Now that you and your dog have learnt the fundamental training activities and puppy lessons are completed, it's time to make a decision.  Dogs that have received training using reward-based techniques like learning new skills and activities.

It's simple to believe that your only choices are to keep going to training sessions and concentrate primarily on making your dog more obedient.  However, you might attempt a variety of puppy sports and activities.  Therefore, take your time and choose something that you and your dog will truly love.

 

Have a go at puppy agility

Puppy agility is one of the most popular dog sports to watch and participate in.  A variety of obstacles, including jumps, tunnels, puppy walks, and other items to either leap over, go through, or walk along, make up this enjoyable, competitive, off-lead exercise.

Dog agility, as the name suggests, is a highly popular activity for dogs nowadays. It involves training and assessing your dog's agility abilities as well as how well they obey your directions.

Originally a tiny dog hurdle race, this canine sport made its debut at Cruft's in 1977. Both the participating dogs and their owners loved it, and the sport took off—literally, in the case of some naughty and too enthusiastic competitors!

However, what is dog agility in reality?

• Dog agility involves guiding your dog through an obstacle course.
• Since dogs are off-lead, your only tools for control are your voice and body language, which calls for very good obedience training.

Although most pups can practice agility with varied degrees of success and a great deal of delight, many people believe that agility is solely for Border Collies and their extremely athletic owners.  Mini agility tournaments are available for dogs of all sizes, or you can just do it for enjoyment and the social possibilities it gives you and your puppy.

While your teen dog is still too young to jump, many agility clubs offer puppy classes where you can learn how to use some of the other equipment, like tunnels and weaves, and practise your basic control in preparation for more advanced agility training when your dog is older. Both the dog and the owner need to be somewhat fit.

Moving about will keep you both in shape, and each time you practise, your training abilities will get better.  Accuracy and speed are crucial in competitive events, but even if your dog insists on going under the hurdle instead of jumping over it, all the skills they have learnt will still be helpful if you are simply having fun!  The Kennel Club website has further information about dog agility and associated events around the country.

A fantastic activity for enhancing your management and boosting your dog's self-esteem is puppy agility.

 

Try out flyball

This is a much more active situation.  The structure of this competitive team sport is knockout.  Most dogs like playing flyball, and it's simple to understand why this dog sport is so well-liked from the sidelines!

Two teams of four dogs compete in the obstacle race known as flyball.  Dogs from each team make a series of leaps (typically four), sprint to a box, use their front paws to trigger a catapult machine, catch the ball that shoots out, and then race back to the starting point.  No matter who wins, there's no denying that everyone has a great time. The team that finishes first wins.

There are many fascinating flyball methods that you may teach your dog.  To cover the most ground in the shortest period of time, your dog must not only pass the obstacles but also maintain a smooth approach and land well.  Training is also a lot of fun since a tight turn at the catapult box might spell the difference between winning and losing.  Imagine what your dog can do in a flyball race if they like catching balls and sprinting off the lead!

Even if you don't want to compete, you may still enjoy adding another string to your training bow and help your puppy learn this useful skill.  And you could develop an addiction!

 

Heelwork to music

Often referred to as "dancing with your dog," this exercise can be just what you need to enjoy yourself while also brushing up on your training.  For dogs who enjoy a little teamwork, this activity is ideal since it requires coordination and collaboration.  The finest aspect is that you participate to the same extent as they do!  Competitive  Like ballroom dancing, Heelwork to Music is a four-minute performance that combines heelwork in different positions with a variety of tricks. It is performed in front of judges, but you may have just as much fun at home or at local training club. Learning via play, developing overall control, learning new tricks, and, of course, setting it all to music are all part of training.

Success depends on how well you and your dog collaborate, not on speed or timeliness.  You are actually "dancing" with your dog when weaving and other abilities are integrated into a pattern, which makes this easy yet skilful activity a wonderful way to spend time with your pet.

Although it requires you to hone your obedience and training abilities as well as your dancing and coordination, dogs of all types and sizes may participate and even compete at the top levels!

Work out with canicross

The sport is just off-road running with your dog, and the name is a combination of the words "canine" and "cross country."  Wearing a cosy, cushioned harness that is fastened to the owner's waistline with a 2-meter bungee, the dog sprints ahead in response to directions.

In addition to giving you and your dog a fantastic physical exercise, Canicross encourages your dog to utilise their brains and boosts their confidence through the use of directional orders.  Having their own dog personal fitness trainer helps owners by motivating their pets to run farther and faster, and both parties gain from the improved activity and fitness.

 

Improve your teamwork with rally

This sport is a hybrid of obstacle course and obedience!  Dogs and their owners try a predetermined course with up to 15 signs along the way instructing you on what to do at each location, which is different from obedience.  Simple exercises like sit and turn are performed on a lead at the lower levels. At the higher levels, however, the activities get more difficult and complicated, and are performed off a lead.  Compared to conventional obedience, this sport fosters collaboration and overall training in a less structured environment.

 

Obedience

Dog obedience is a more laid-back activity that doesn't need a lot of fast-paced chasing, but it will challenge both your dog's and your own levels of desire and focus.  It's all about your dog's obedience and training, as the name implies.

Basic commands like "sit," "down," and "heel," as well as retrieving objects when instructed, are part of this much-liked and practical dog activity.  Once your dog is proficient at this, you may on to more difficult tasks like asking them to "stay" for extended periods of time or providing orders remotely.  It's not as quick as other dog sports, but it's as difficult in other ways, as you can see when your astute dog attempts to focus on your orders rather than all those alluring temptations.

 

Dog diving

A relatively new dog activity, dog diving is ideal for all those puppies that enjoy making splashes in the water.  Dog diving, which started off as "dock diving" in the US, is now a huge hit at worldwide events and shows.  In this sport, dogs compete by taking turns diving into a pool of water from a ramp in order to recover a toy.  The dog who jumps the furthest wins, to put it simply.  And don't worry about the dogs participating—you can tell they're having a good time by the way they enthusiastically jump into the water and wag their tails!

 

Flying disc

Another popular dog sport is flying disc, but you're probably more familiar with it from playing dog Frisbee in the park.  It's likely that you and your dog have already played a flying disc game, which is just you tossing the disc and your nimble dog running and catching it.

The sport began when Frisbee was a popular human sport in the early 1970s. When American college student Alex Stein and his incredible dog, Ashley Whippet, leaped the fence during a nationally televised baseball game in August of 1974, it was the turning point!

Ashley stunned the audience by running at 35 mph and jumping nine feet into the air to grab flying discs for eight minutes.  The baseball game was halted because the trick was so unique, and commentators kept announcing the event to an enthralled audience.  A new sport had been created, but Alex was finally dragged from the pitch!

The "catch and retrieve" event is the focal point of the sport if your dog participates in competition.  In a timed round (usually of about a minute), teams of one dog and their owner attempt to make as many throws and catches as possible.  In certain variations, freestyling may be used, so be on the lookout for some real party tricks! Teams get the most points for long throw and catch combos.  This might be the sport for you if your dog enjoys playing toss and catch or if they are skilled at leaping and catching objects in midair.

These are only a handful of the numerous sports and activities you may engage in with your dog; the best place to start is by discussing these and other ideas with your neighbourhood dog training class.

Since your dog is still young, consult your veterinarian before beginning any new activity to make sure they are mature and physically capable of doing the new task. Also, make sure they are having fun!

For even more enjoyable ways to strengthen your relationship, see our advice for puppy brain games and puzzles if you're currently in play mode.  Or read this comprehensive article to learn everything there is to know about puppy exercise.