Dog Sports
Dog sports are activities that involve dogs.
There is much discussion about what exactly defines a sport for dogs. Some issues:
- Must a sport be entertaining to watch? Agility, Disc dog, and Dock Jumping are very entertaining to spectators, and often televised.
- If a human companion is not actively involved, is it actually a sport? Take greyhound racing, for example, or hunting from, say, a duck blind, from which the dog retrieves the game.
- Is any activity a sport if a casual observer does not understand the nature of the competition? For example, in a conformation show the handler and dog move around a ring for a judge to evaluate the dog’s appearance and structure; the skill and knowledge required are not obvious to those uninterested in the sport.
This list is intended only to represent anything that anyone is likely to refer to as a dog sport, not to argue its validity as sport.
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
- Agility
- Bikejoring
- Canicross
- Carting
- Competition obedience
- Conformation showing
- Catchball (A variation on Flyball)
- Disc dog
- Dog fighting
- Dock Jumping
- Dog hiking, Pack Hiking
- Earthdog trials
- Field trials
- Flyball
- Hunting
- Hound Trailing
- Junior Showmanship
- Mushing, Dog mushing
- Musical canine freestyle; Canine Dressage; Heelwork to Music
- Obedience training
- Protection sports (including Schutzhund and French Ring Sport)
- Pulka
- Racing
- Rally obedience
- Scent hurdling
- Scootering
- Schutzhund
- Sheepdog trials (or Herding)
- Sighthound racing (including Greyhound racing, coursing, and lure coursing)
- Skijoring
- Sled dog racing
- Tracking trials (see also Tracking (dog))
- Weight pulling
- Weiner Racing (i.e. racing Dachshunds)
