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Are You A Dog Sports Whore?


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We were having this conversation with someone that we have started freestyle training with & were discussing how some people just can't help themselves & have to become involved in every dog sport available. As I have mentioned before, when I first started in dogs except for gundog stuff you were basically limited to obedience, agility & tracking & in Qld you could only compete if you had registered dogs. Nowdays there is a huge range of activities on offer (for both purebred & crossbreds), things like lurecoursing, frisbee, herding, flyball, canine freestyle, inground hunts, schutzhund & endurance as well as the usual confirmation, obedience, tracking & agility (which now includes jumpers, pairs, gamblers & I don't know how many others ;) ) have all become very popular & lots of people do lots of different sports.

Personally I do obedience (although Im not as committed as I once was because I have other more (?) interesting things to do with the dogs :scared: ), herding & freestyle, & although we've tried out a couple of the others (we've started taking the kids along to frisbee to give them a bit of fun with the dogs), Im happy to do just the 3 sports & am not really interested in the others.

I know that some people (especially in herding it seems) frown upon doing more than 1 sport with any dog, but I'm going to get around that by getting another dog - 3 dogs = 3 sports :) . A bit more seriously, I am happy to do more than 1 sport with each dog, but now that I have been made aware of the pitfalls hopefully my training will be geared to minimise the negative impact on the things I like to do best (herding & freestyle).

However I know of some people who will try any sport that comes along & get involved for a short time & then decide that there might be something more interesting out there so they move onto the next thing. So at any time, they may be doing a whole host of sports, but not concentrating on any of them enough to do well.

So are you a dogsport tart & try to share it around ;) or are you the faithful type who can be relied on to go the distance? :rofl:

EFS

Edited by MrsD
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were discussing how some people just can't help themselves & have to become involved in every dog sport available.

I know one or two who fit the bill :scared:

Edited by SwaY
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Nope. I do primarily agility and have obedience "campaigns" when I train and trial. I like lure coursing with the dogs because they get such a blast but I can't see me taking on anymore.

That said, if I were to get a dog that was bred to herd or track or retrieve, I'd probably give it a whirl. I enjoy seeing dogs do what their breed was developed to do.

Can't see me doing some of the 'newer' sports. I find it hard enough to train for the ones I do now.

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Sway - did you name & shame or what it a typo? ;) ;) .

PF - :scared: I think I enjoy freestyle so much because it's just a variation on obedience & I love herding because I have a dog who is bred for it & has good instinct. As you said, I love watching dogs doing what they were bred to do :) . It's funny because herding (the real stuff on a property) was sort of my first experience of training dogs when I was much younger & when I moved from the property I searched around until I found obedience to take up the "hole" left by not training dogs on sheep. Now I've come full circle again & am back at herding & am loving it ;) ;) .

ETA - I forgot sledding in my list of new dog sports :rofl:

Edited by MrsD
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:scared:

I just do obedience. Went to a herding thing on the weekend but that was so the doggie could play with some sheepies. Might have a play on the agility equipment but again it is just so the doggie can have some fun.

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For the record, my conversation was with someone who isn't on DOL, so it wasn't about DOLers, just in general ;) . TBH I havent noticed that shoey is a bit of a tart, but then I don't keep up with everything that everyone is doing ;) .

Jules - so you're the faithful type like me then? :rofl::)

ETA - there's nothing wrong with doing lots of different things with your dog, if it makes you (& more importantly the dog) happy then it's only up to you what you do :scared: .

Edited by MrsD
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Yep my dogs have the title DSW after their names now!

ETA I do obedience and have just started flyball

I tried agility, and may want to do something with it at some later stage, not really sure, and also did freestyle, but more so to learn tricks than to actually do it as a sport

I'm new to dogs, never had one growing up and never really even had friends with dogs and I really haven't experienced any of this before, so it's all new

Edited by shoemonster
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Yep my dogs have the title DSW after their names now!

:scared:

Well I have actually had obedience lessons with 3 diff people this week! :) Plus the herding dude! :rofl:

Ohh you are truly a tart ;) ;)

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