Fun With Your Poodle
Poodles are highly intelligent and easily trainable and excel at many different sports. Here are some ideas!
Barn Hunt
Barn hunt is a sport that channels a dog's natural prey drive and has them search an area of hay bales to find rats (protected from harm in PVC tubes). The dog must also be able to climb or jump up on the bales and go through a tunnel of hay bales as well as be able to correctly identify where the rats are. We train and compete in Barn Hunt at Storm Haven Acres in Ladysmith.
Disc Dog
In disc dog competitions, dogs and their human flying disc throwers compete in events such as distance catching and somewhat choreographed freestyle catching. There are several different games that are challenging and fun!
Dog Dancing / Heelwork to Music
Tricks combined with a choreographed routine to music makes dog dancing!
Flyball
Flyball is a sport in which teams of dogs race against each other from the start to the finish line, over a line of hurdles, to a box that releases a tennis ball to be caught when the dog presses the spring-loaded pad, then back to their handlers while carrying the ball.
Lost Item Recovery
Train your dog to find a lost item of yours (sock, wallet, keys, cell phone, etc)! This is a competitive sport through the North American Sport Dog Association.
Nosework / Scent Detection
Nosework puts a dog's amazing sense of smell to work by training them to detect certain odors. There are different types of searches such as containers, interior room search, exterior search, and vehicle search as well as different types of games. There are several organizations to trial under such as SDDA, CWAGS, and CKC.
Obedience
Obedience is the traditional form of a dog working with a handler doing heelwork, commands, retrieving, jumping, and scent discrimination.
Rally Obedience
Rally obedience (also known as Rally or Rally-O) combines traditional obedience commands and heelwork within a planned course where the handler must follow signs to complete the course rather than receiving commands from a judge. Rally obedience can be done through the CKC or for dogs that are not able to be CKC registered they can do CARO which is very similar.
Shed Hunt
Train your dog to find shed antlers in the woods! This is a competitive sport through the North American Sport Dog Association.
Sprinter Lure
Sprinter lure is where the dogs chase a bag on a string down a long straight stretch of field and they are timed to see how fast they can run. Points are awarded for speed and accumulating points gets them titles.
Trailing and Locating
Trailing and locating is similar to barn hunt but it takes place in an outdoor setting instead of a barn. The dog must catch the trail of the rat and can use the scent trail to follow it to where the rat is hidden in a protective box. This is a competitive sport through the North American Sport Dog Association.
Urban Locating
Urban locating is similar to barn hunt but it takes place in an urban setting (indoors or outdoors in a man-made environment) instead of a barn. The dog must search the area to find the rat is hidden in a protective box. This is a competitive sport through the North American Sport Dog Association.
Wall Climb
Wall climb is where a dog will run up a vertical wall to grab a hanging baton. They are attached to a special belaying harness so they can run up the wall and then be belayed down without hurting themselves. We have been training in wall climb at Storm Haven Acres in Ladysmith.
Weight Pull
Weight pull is where the dog has a specially fitted harness attached to a sled or track on wheels to pull weight behind them. A great way to build muscle!