What other activities can/do you do with your dogs?

[Kimmikins]

Obviously we all walk our dogs. But what else?

In 2008 I ran the Race for Life, this was before a spinal surgeon told me that I'm not physiologically geared up for running, and I trained for it for a few months. I took Scrumpy Jack with me a couple of times in the early stages of training, when I couldn't run the whole route in one go and stopped quite a bit! Once I'd gotten better, he stopped coming with me - if he was on a lead I'd get jolted to a stop with him wanting to pee on everything, and if he was off-lead I'd turn around to find he was way behind having a good old sniff and checking his wee-mails
Tim takes Sara running with him sometimes when he's not doing a long one, as she's definitely a sprinter with very little stamina.

Along with doggy-type activites like Agility, Fly-ball etc, do you do anything not aimed necessarily at dogs?

I'd love to get Sara into the PAT dog scheme...if we can get her calmed down when she meets people she'd be spot on, because after the initial 2-5mins of bounciness she's so placid and LOVES being stroked and fussed. She'll sit for hours with her head on your lap, so I think she'd be brilliant.

[sparks01]

I really do admire the pat dog people for what they and there dogs do
Crash wouldn't be any good as he gets to excited when spoken to. He will stand or sit with no problem but as soon as you say hello he gets to excited and can unlock you over if we don't stop him he just loves attention

[Jordan]

Sounds like Sara would be ideal as a pat dog. When my mum was alive and in a care home I used to visit with Jordan and the other residents loved it, the staff said it made such a difference to them just to stroke a dog. She wasnt a PAT dog but they enjoyed making a fuss of her....highlight of their day.

Domino would love fly ball but theres nothing near by. I was trying to teach him trieball but hadn't got very far and decided to give him a treat on his birthday and introduce the fitness ball. Well he loved it he had such a 'ball' with it ....excuse the pun! BUT it only lasted a minute and POP he burst it LOL so that was the end of trieball.

Not really done anything else with him apart from his training, what sort of thing were you thinking?

[Kimmikins]

I'm not really sure, along the PAT dog line, as well as the agility. Do any of you take your dogs for coffee dates? We take Sara to our local coffee shop when the weather plays ball and we can sit outside, and they bring out a bowl of water for her.

[sparks01]

we have done swimming with crash as a 5 min swim is equivalent to a 5 mile walk but the pool we used to take him to closed  

[kristina]

Xena will have every opportunity to do agility and fly ball once she starts school,this group I am joining are all into that,it's me I worry about more I don't want to let this pup down but I can't run any more (lordy I wish I could) but I will do my best for my little girl.I play all day,well almost,with her she has untold amounts of energy,my house work has just gone to pot,my garden is a wreck but hey I don't care me and Xena have fun and she keeps me on my toes.Kristina

[Adrianne]

One of our family dogs is a PAT dog, the oldies all save up titbits for him and he gets no end of biscuits ..they are not supposed to feed him -he works in a couple of old folks homes. It is very time consuming, my mum handles him, I think she got him involved because she is used to working all her dogs and he really wasn't interested in any form of training. Its good for each of her dogs to have something different from each other too.

I am using treiball or at least the ideas with some clients..its great for clients who cant run around with the dog ...even better if they have a herding dog and need to occupy its time. there are not many opportunities yet to learn the sport at a club..but it will grow ... I like anything that can be adapted to do in the garden or even indoors.

this is a clip that I think Christa sent to me a while ago ...for anyone wanting to see treiball at its best..

google or Wikipedia for the rules!

[kristina]

Loved the pic of Crash in the pool,brought back memories of my shepherd after her big shoulder op,we took her to a doggy pool,best therapy ever she recovered so much faster and was just the best thing for her,never could keep her out of the river after that e5056548laughKristina

[kristina]

Adrianne thats amazing thanks so much for the video link,watched a few of them and get the quest!! My problem would be getting hold of the balls,we have just same at my physio classes but they are so expensive,but totally agree with you this would be so good for an outdoor/indoor activity,may be a large football for the time being??  Sports direct have bucket loads of balls,will be there tomorrow.Kristina

[Kimmikins]

Swimming an treiball both look so much fun! I really enjoyed the video, although the blue team were definitely running diversion tactics there!

[Dani]

 lol @ the video,the doggy with the blue balls just wanted to make it hard work for the other one huh 



Shame about the pool closing down sparksy,that sounds fantastic and what a cool pic bless him 

[Jordan]

Heres a link to the foundation skills I was following to teach Domino.....we were struggling to master things so never got far but we might give it another go.

[Adrianne]

a little tip for buying the balls ..they all burst, but might be best getting ones that burst quietly ..as opposed to one that makes a pop! if you can tell by looking?

[Dani]

That is so clever,loved watching that !! I tried this to teach dodge to close the door . . . .lol think we went a little to quick ! Will try this again once other issues have been sorted,but he gets bored far to easily these days . . . . need to have super duper treats to keep his attention lol 





( will work my way through all other threads in the next few hours/days   )

[Jordan]

Jan 3, 2014 19:52:18 GMT Adrianne said:

a little tip for buying the balls ..they all burst, but might be best getting ones that burst quietly ..as opposed to one that makes a pop! if you can tell by looking?

Oh yes they definately burst LOL Domio can vouch for that! I think that is one of the reasons the ball is not introduced at the beginning and learning to push is important.