Dog Sports You Probably Won't Try

[SpringerLover]

There are a few dog sports that really don't appeal to me. I can't ever see myself spending money to play them. I don't think other people shouldn't do them, but they really aren't for me. Maybe it's because of the type of dog I'm drawn to, I don't know... but just not my thing.

Sports I haven't tried/probably won't try
1) Lure Coursing-frenetic/crazy/barking dogs, no thanks.
2) Flyball-same...

Sports I do and love
1) Obedience
2) Tracking

Do you have dog sports you don't plan on doing for one reason or another?

 

[Red.Apricot]

Probably won't try:
Flyball. It doesn't 'click' for me; there's other things I'd rather do with my dog.
Dock-diving. I don't have a dog that would enjoy it right now. I guess that could change, but I'm not drawn to it.

Have tried:
Obedience (my favorite)
Rally (love it)
Lure-coursing (Elsie ADORED it; the people were so friendly and chill--we'll be back, lol)

Want to try:
Tracking (we've started training for it)
Agility (I want to get her UD first though)

Everything else is a 'meh' to a 'maybe.'

 

[Laurelin]

I went to one flyball practice with Mia a long time ago. I waffle on it. It's so loud and repetitive but the thing holding me back right now is my inability to commit to a team sport that would have me away on so many agility weekends. Plus... travel $$$$. It would eat up all my sports money. And they practice on sunday mornings. Blegh. So probably not likely though I think they'd love for Hank to come. He'd be a good little height dog.

I probably will NEVER do obedience. And I doubt I'll do rally. I try to get all into rally and have done classes and it never sticks. I find it boring. Obedience is like watching paint dry. I hate it. And the trainers here... not my cup of tea.

Likewise IPO or any protection sport. The biting part looks fun. The rest looks boring. And I don't have time for it.

Freestyle. Nope. Not happening. I have friends that do it and have tried to get me involved since my dogs know a lot of fun tricks. I cannot dance and will not dress up and dance with my dogs. To me that is one too many steps into crazy dog lady.

Weight pull- just no interest at all in it.

I'd like to try dock and disc but it is yet to be seen if Hank likes water. I took him to a dog swimming area and he mostly wanted to roll in mud. I have hope though! Both are not common in this area (I don't think dock dogs exists at all)

 

[Linds]

Nice idea!

I am petty much open to giving anything a shot, especially if it fits the dog. But, these are the ones that are probably last on my list:

Obedience-I don't mind Rally but I don't really find joy in training OB stuff. I love precision work and all that but I get distracted by making it more fun for me and less about the sport. Like, I love crazy flashy heeling but I get more joy out of the pivots, backwards heeling and side steps and so on.

Nosework-To be fair, I haven't ever tried to it so maybe I'll change my tune sometime. But overall the concept doesn't really appeal to me and when I watched the classes they kinda bored me.

Flyball-Traveler took the class, loved it and it was fun I guess but overall not a sport I'm really interested in. Maybe one day I'll try it again, especially if I find a team or something I like with a lot of people on it I like but overall it's not involved enough for me I think.

Freestyle-Since I love Freestyle Disc so much you would think I would like it but I just, I just can't. It seems like one step over the crazy dog lady line I'm not willing to go. And I can't dance and I don't want to dress up and I would rather do it with a Frisbee, makes me feel less crazy.

But seriously, I never say never!

 

[Katem]

Field and herding both seem cool, but I don't think I'll ever care enough to put the time in for either sport.

IPO interests me, but again just not gonna happen. At least not with my current dogs/location. Realistically though, it's just not a sport I'll ever actually pursue.

Freestyle = absolutely not
Flyball, eh, not likely

 

[noludoru]

Dock diving for sure . My lab is afraid of water. Cold water. And can't swim.

 

[GaelicBlues]

Probably won't try:
Flyball, too much noise and crazy
Freestyle, not for me, although I have a dog who would love it
Protection sports, my breeds are not suitable

Sports I do and love:
Agility, all my dogs
Rally, all my dogs
Tracking, all my collies
Field Trials, just the Brittany
Obedience, some of my collies

 

[BostonBanker]

Flyball: I thought I might be interested when Gusto was really young, and wandered over to one competition going on at the same fairgrounds where I was competing in an agility trial and holy crap the barking. I live with chronic headaches on the best days. I couldn't even stay to watch for more than about 5 minutes.

Disc/freestyle: Both for the same reason - all the showmanship/dancing/etc is so not me. Way too self-conscious to ever enjoy that.

Tracking: I thought I'd love it, I thought Meg would love it. I was bored out of my mind the one seminar I went to. Maybe if I had a group of people working on it together, but I just couldn't motivate myself to practice.

Those are probably the big four that really, really hold no appeal to me. Agility is my real love, and I'm not sure there's anything I'd do otherwise (barn hunt if it was more available locally, because Meg would love it), but I wouldn't say 'never' to most other sports. Just not likely.

 

[crazedACD]

Won't try...
Disc/Freestyle for the same reasons as BB ^. I don't really want to perform myself nor be creative in routines and stuff.

Flyball..meh, I'm just not into it. Plus I'm convinced my dog would fly out of her lane and nail the dog next to her ("ALL BALLS ARE MY BALLS"). :rofl1:

Nosework...I worry about messing up our obedience and agility going into a ring to sniff for stuff. Shrug. And it's expensive to trial.

Carting/Weight Pull/Bikejoring etc.. Isn't as much fun training as it looks, IMO.

Will try..
Already dabble in obedience, rally and agility.
I won't lie, I'm interested in protection sports. Don't know where to start.
Lure coursing has been super fun. Need more fencing though.

Maybe...
Tracking..we didn't catch on fast enough to keep me interested in training it. I was going out and practicing multiple times a week and after a few weeks I didn't see notable progress other than my dog can eat food in a straight line and it's on the back burner now.

Herding...I would love to do but finding training is hard.

 

[PWCorgi]

I don't think there's anything out there that I absolutely wouldn't try. There are certainly things I wouldn't try with the dogs I have now, but I don't think there's anything I wouldn't ever try.

 

[JacksonsMom]

I went to one flyball practice with Mia a long time ago. I waffle on it. It's so loud and repetitive but the thing holding me back right now is my inability to commit to a team sport that would have me away on so many agility weekends. Plus... travel $$$$. It would eat up all my sports money. And they practice on sunday mornings. Blegh. So probably not likely though I think they'd love for Hank to come. He'd be a good little height dog.

I probably will NEVER do obedience. And I doubt I'll do rally. I try to get all into rally and have done classes and it never sticks. I find it boring. Obedience is like watching paint dry. I hate it. And the trainers here... not my cup of tea.

Likewise IPO or any protection sport. The biting part looks fun. The rest looks boring. And I don't have time for it.

Freestyle. Nope. Not happening. I have friends that do it and have tried to get me involved since my dogs know a lot of fun tricks. I cannot dance and will not dress up and dance with my dogs. To me that is one too many steps into crazy dog lady.

Weight pull- just no interest at all in it.

Pretty much all this for me.

I MAY want to give rally a try but feel I will get bored honestly.

I love dock diving and even though Jackson loves to swim at home and jumps in, etc, it's different at dock diving, he gets nervous/a bit too high up/too many distractions etc. He didn't do bad at the one practice for his first one so I probably could get him to be decent with some more practice but always find it pointless to spend money to bring him to a dock diving pool when we've got our own free pool whenever we want it lol.

I love disc but same thing, even though he loves playing with just me, he's not quite a 'disc dog' and wouldn't do well in a public environment with many spectators watching and smells and distractions etc. He's not 'into' the disc THAT much ya know?

Currently, I can only see us dabbling in some agility in the future, I'd like to give lure coursing a try at least one but don't think he'll be into once he realizes it's a plastic bag on the end lol. Also this facility near us does this new thing called Wag It Games which kind of incorporates everything so I want to do this once I get extra money.

 

[Dekka]

I find obedience very boring to watch but far far from boring to do. Same with Rally, but I find obedience more fun with the extra challenge.

Not a fan of flyball for myself. That is likely the only sport I don't want to try.

 

[Red.Apricot]

... I didn't see notable progress other than my dog can eat food in a straight line and it's on the back burner now.

This literally made me laugh out loud.

 

[Laurelin]

Nosework...I worry about messing up our obedience and agility going into a ring to sniff for stuff. Shrug. And it's expensive to trial.

You actually don't go into a ring. It's generally a roped off area or a room. I actually have found it helps give the dog focus and a cue to go sniff. You put it on cue like anything else and they learn the difference very fast. My agility trainer actually told me that she sees a lot of improvement in sniffy behaviors in my dogs.

Not to argue, it's just a common misconception I see. A lot of people skip out on nosework because they're worried their dogs will sniff in agility or obedience but it just doesn't happen.

It is WAY too expensive to trial hence why we haven't trialled yet. May never.

 

[meepitsmeagan]

Great thread idea!

Things I do and love:
Obedience. Heart so hard.
Disc (so far VERY NEW), surprisingly. About two weeks ago I would have put it into the "no" pile. My dog loves it, which I think makes all the difference.
Bikejoring. It's such a blast and it's relatively easy with high rewards for me (ie deddogs).

Things I do that are okay:
Agility. When he's on, it's fun. It's a lot of behaviors that I don't have excess time to train for and don't care enough to make the time or train that vs. OB, which I find more interesting.

Things I would like to try but don't have proper time into or resources aren't readily available:
Bitework.
Flyball.

Things I will or will probably try in the future:
Weight Pull. I think it would transfer pretty easily from joring and I think Harlow would be good at it.
Dock diving. I love dock diving. I hope to doG Tulsa will go off the dock.
Herding. THIS WILL EVENTUALLY HAPPEN, but not until we get our own cattle.
Hunt trials. I have a feeling I will do some sort of hunt trial with Josh's bird dog just for fun.
Barn Hunt is a maybe. It looks fun and I think the ACD's would have fun, but I don't know that I find it worth the trial fees.

Things I have no interest in:
Lurecoursing. It's a plastic bag. I don't get it.
Tracking. Looks boring.
Freestyle. I don't do dancing.
Nosework. Did it and no interest to continue.

 

[smeagle]

You actually don't go into a ring. It's generally a roped off area or a room. I actually have found it helps give the dog focus and a cue to go sniff. You put it on cue like anything else and they learn the difference very fast. My agility trainer actually told me that she sees a lot of improvement in sniffy behaviors in my dogs.

Not to argue, it's just a common misconception I see. A lot of people skip out on nosework because they're worried their dogs will sniff in agility or obedience but it just doesn't happen.

It is WAY too expensive to trial hence why we haven't trialled yet. May never.

And if you do obedience you need to teach scent work anyway!

Obedience is my number one passion but I am also training to compete in IPO and we might dabble in rally just to add the titles.

Not really interested in anything else

 

[release the hounds]

I went to a dock diving event once and I can't say I'd do it again. I love to go to one and let my dogs just jump, but it's not something I want to compete at or pay to play.

Flyball doesn't really interest me.

I like OB in that it's part of IPO. I probably won't be involved in AKC OB until i'm not doing any bite sports just because of small differences in what they're looking for.

Tracking is like church for me. I never look forward to doing it, but always feel better after i've done it.

I could do any of the bite sports, ring, IPO depending on what's available.

Beyond that I don't think i'll really look to any others because I get all I want from those and they take enough time

I am interested in agility, but only enough to be casually interested. I like the physical and mental pressure of bitework and seeing how dogs respond to confrontation. I know there's different pressures in a sport like agility, or any sport really, but they're just that, different. I like the completeness of a bite sport I guess.

 

[Finkie_Mom]

Things I do:
Agility: I am hooked and will do agility forever and for always.
Rally: Love Rally. It's so much fun and my dogs dig it. Just need more funds to compete.
Barn Hunt: I think Barn Hunt is super fun. The crowd there is so nice and supportive. Again, it comes down to funds at this moment, which is why we haven't done anything since Kimma got her RATN in May.

Things I want to do:
Formal Obedience: One day. Just need to get in to class before I will feel confident competing. I've just trained everything on my own up to this point.
Nosework: I sort of do Nosework at home (and I've trained multiple detection dogs at work), but I've never been to class for it.
Freestyle: I think Kimma would love it. Jari probably would, too. Would put some of those learned tricks to use

Basically anything else I just wouldn't do with my current dogs/breed. If I ever ventured out of my Spitzy ways (or found a Finkie that might like other things), I wouldn't mind trying other sports. I actually really think Pen would like bitework, but I couldn't find a club close to me that I thought would accept such an off breed. Plus, time commitment.

 

[Southpaw]

Dog sports I probably won't try? ALL OF THEM.

Lol seriously the only thing that has captivated my interest is disc. And I mean that in a way where like, it's totally something I would enjoy practicing and if I had a more suitable dog for it, could see myself competing. My sister is adopting a 6ish month old BC mix, perhaps I will steal her :rofl1:

Otherwise there's really nothing that interests me to a point where I'd ever want to put much time into it or do it seriously.

 

[Grab]

I probably won't try agility...I like the idea, but I just hate to run

No flyball. Too much chaos, lol.
ETA: things I do: Obedience..love it. Excited to have a dog that has fun with it again (the Chows say no thank you)

I'd like to try Rally, but there are no classes near me. And apparently I have a mind block about reading the signs online and comprehending what I'm actually supposed to be doing :/