Tricks, Games, Sports

When your dog has learned how to search, this makes a great rainy day indoor exercise activity. You can also routinely scatter her meals around the yard so she has to search through the grass to find them; put her on a long line if you don't have a fence. You can also name her favorite toys and have her find them. You can even have family members and friends hide and have her find them.

In every obedience match, tracking test, field trial, agility event, show ring, athletic competition and puppy kindergarten class, owners and handlers are eager to find whatever strategies, products, and equipment will give their dogs an advantage. One healthy shortcut to the winner’s circle comes from Mother Nature, for with the help of medicinal herbs, dogs can concentrate despite distractions, relax under stress, keep their joints limber, improve their coats, increase their stamina and possibly even improve their sense of smell.

and we even managed to complete it with my lack of videography and editing skills. I am a Certified Trick Dog Instructor through DMWYD and really like the way the program gives people attainable goals to work toward with their pets."üüüüüüüüüJude Azaren (seen at a conventional agility event with her dog

Stunt dog trainer/performer and author Kyra Sundance has created an entire program around teaching dogs to do tricks. Trainers can become Certified Trick Dog Instructors (CTDI), and dog owners can earn titles at five levels by having a witness sign the Trick Dog Performance Form found on Sundance's website. To achieve the various levels, you simply need your dog to perform enough tricks from Sundance's Tricks List to meet the requirements for that level: …

Humans have taken advantage of dogs' incredibly keen sense of smell over the ages for such uses as hunting, tracking lost and fugitive humans, and more recently, the detection of bombs, narcotics, and other contraband. It's well known that a dog's nose is many times sharper than our own – estimates range from 10,000 to 100,000 times superior to ours, with a far greater number and variety of scent receptors in their noses, more neurons linking the nose to the brain, and a greater proportion of their brains devoted to smell.

A couple of decades ago, when positive reinforcement-based training was in its infancy, we were quite sensitive to criticism from the dog training community about this new permissive" style of dog training. When we began encouraging people to play tug with their dogs

The trick Take a Bow!" is basically an exaggerated play bow

Contrary to conventional wisdom in some dog training circles, tug is a great game to play with most dogs - as long as you and your canine pal play by the rules. Lots of my clients have dogs with aggressive, reactive, and other stress-related behaviors. One of the best ways to help reduce stress is to increase exercise. Tug is great exercise. I'm constantly encouraging my clients to play tug with their dogs. Inevitably when I suggest it I get a puzzled look and a tentative protest that "some trainer" told them playing tug would make their dog dominant and aggressive. I sure wish I could meet that pervasive "some trainer" some day and convince him/her otherwise. It just isn't so. Tug has a lot going for it besides just being good exercise. Most dogs love to tug. Of course, the caveat is that you play tug properly - with rules, which I'll discuss in a minute. Here are some of the many other reasons this game ranks high on my list of approved activities.

I used to show my dogs in competitive obedience. In the beginning, the opportunity to earn obedience titles and show off my dog's training appealed to me greatly. But as I evolved toward positive training methods and a more fulfilling relationship with my dogs, the military precision of the show ring lost its charm. I realized that it made no sense to have a relationship with my canine pals based on warm interaction and communication outside the ring, only to march in cold silence next to my dogs inside the ring. I stopped showing and turned my efforts toward family dog training and activities that were more fun and flexible, like agility and canine freestyle.

Vested interests

a 24-pound

A stand-up paddleboard (SUP) is similar to a surfboard, though one paddles a SUP while standing. As a former avid whitewater kayaker, when I first saw photos of people on SUPs, I thought, Why in the world would anyone want to do that?" Where was the excitement? The adrenaline?"