Blog - AZ Dog Sports

Try a new dog sport!

Sometimes in the dog world, a sport becomes so enticing to us that we can’t help but want to share it with you!

Like when we started offering Treibball classes at AZ Dog Sports. (And the success has kept them going!)

Now is one of those times. Rally Free and Carting are two dog sports that are new classes offered at AZ Dog Sports. In case you aren’t familiar with them, we thought we would share a bit about each. If you are looking for something new and fun to try with your dog, check these out!

RallyFree Dog Class

Definition: As defined on the rallyfree.com website, Rally Free is defined as, “a unique sport combining trick behaviors of Canine Musical Freestyle with the format of Rally-Obedience.”
Rally vs RallyFree: For anyone who has tried one of our Rally classes, you know that Rally is a great way to uplevel your dog’s obedience while building your skills as a cohesive team. Rally is all about working together with your dog…teamwork. A Rally course consists of a series of 12-18 signs that you and your dog navigate through in a certain order. You guide your dog, stopping at each pre-set sign and giving her a command to follow.
RallyFree follows the same protocol, except that at each stopping point the commands are more “free”. For instance, instead of asking your dog to “sit”, you might be asking him to “weave” in and out of your legs, or jump through a hoop you make with your arms. You might even be asking him to perform a small dance step you and he concocted! And unlike Rally, in RallyFree the dog will have to work on both sides of you. Also, RallyFree uses mostly voice commands with minimal to no signals. It is meant to be fun for the dog and handler. Another big difference is instead of losing points you build points as you go thru the course. But you are still working together as a team.

In a sense, RallyFree is just as it sounds…Rally Obedience with the fun of Freestyle training methods!

Carting Dog Class

Definition: Wikipedia describes Carting as “a dog sport or activity in which a dog (usually a large breed) pulls a dogcart filled with supplies, such as farm goods, camping equipment, groceries or firewood, but sometimes pulling people.”
Carting Breeds: Carting, also sometimes called “Drafting”; can be done by most all dogs, but usually works well for the larger working dog breeds. Breeds such as the St. Bernard, Bernese Mountain Dog, Mastiff, Husky or Newfie. But at the Bernese Mountain Dog Carting Trial last January, the hit of the trial was a Parson Russell Terrier getting her Novice Draft Dog Title. She pulled 20 pounds in her cart for a half mile! And Ken Neubauer’s Flat-coated Retrievers have distinguished themselves in multiple carting trials. So it is not limited to the known draft dogs.
Getting started: A good obedience base is needed to start in a Carting class. While it certainly helps if you have some performance events experience, as dogs who are used to performing a task amidst a lot of distractions, dogs and handlers who are relatively new to the competition world can succeed at Carting.

Carting is a great way to exercise your dog while mentally stimulating him and getting a task done for you all at the same time!

Call us to get in on the fun! 602-237-6775

Through The Eyes Of Dog

How often have you found yourself thinking your dog is sad because he gazes at you with mournful eyes?

That a sigh signals boredom?

We’re prone to anthropomorphizing animals. It’s hard not to, because our ability to imagine what a dog might want is limited by our knowledge of a dog’s experience of the world. Not that dogs don’t have feelings or thoughts; they surely do. We get into unfortunate territory when we interpret canine expressions and behavior by our own standards (an upturned mouth is a smile and indicates happiness, etc.) and then proceed to scold, comfort, discipline, outfit, or medicate our dogs based on our faulty assumptions.

Despite the best of intentions, we might do more harm than good—or at least miss the mark by a mile.

How can we adopt a more canine perspective?

A good first step would be to better understand what the world looks like to dogs. Take their sense of smell. It’s not just that dogs pick up more with their two to three hundred million scent receptors than we with our measly six million, or that the very mechanics of their noses are so different from ours. Rather, a dog’s whole world is a web of complex smells. Objects are first assessed not by handling but by sniffing. Time is a matter of smell—strong means new, weak means old, older, ancient. We humans each have our own signature odor, as distinct to a dog as a fingerprint to the police. Hence dogs’ ability to track a person’s route through a crowded street days, even weeks, later. They track a cloud of molecules.

A dog’s world is fascinating, and you don’t need a degree in ethology to explore it.

Books by Temple Grandin, Alexandra Horowitz, or Jean Donaldson can serve as excellent initiations into the world of dogs.

After all, as nature writer and essayist Edward Hoagland said, “In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.”

Play It Safe – Dog Toys

It can’t be said often enough: Dog Toys are great.

As training rewards, for dog-dog play, for dog-human play—and yes, as mental stimulation when Fido is home alone. Dogs left in a moonscape environment get bored and idle minds often turn to mischief.

Toys can make all the difference.

However, not all dog toys are created equal, so choose carefully which ones you leave your dog unsupervised with.

Here are some guidelines for choosing the right dog toy:

Supervise first encounters.

Every time your dog plays with or chews on something new, it should happen under your watchful eye. Make sure your dog plays with the toy appropriately, that is, uses it the way it’s meant to be used. Gnawing on (rather than swallowing) a chew, for instance, or rolling a treat ball rather than trying to crack it open with his teeth.

Choose chews and toys carefully.

Look for durable, non-toxic materials (some rawhides have been preserved with arsenic, for example). And always buy toys created for dogs, not plastic things from the one-dollar bin at the supermarket. Treat balls should have two openings, not one, to prevent a vacuum effect that can cause your dog’s tongue to get stuck.

Never leave your dog alone with…

A rawhide or other edible chews. You need to be around to take the chew away before it’s small enough for your dog to swallow and potentially choke on.
Anything your dog hasn’t played with before.
Anything with parts small enough to swallow, such as squeakers.

Know your dog.

Some dogs play gently with all toys and never break or tear anything. Others are on a mission to take things apart at the seams—nothing gives them greater pleasure. The goal is to find toys that keep your dog happy and constructively occupied during alone time via mental stimulation and food-and-fun delivery. If in doubt about what’s safe to give your dog, always consult your veterinarian.

Does Clicker Training Really Work?

Definition of Clicker Training

Karen Pryor defines clicker training as “an animal training method based on behavioral psychology that relies on marking desirable behavior and rewarding it.”

Basically it means that you use a sound to immediately mark good behavior so that your dog knows she’s done a good thing.

Benefits to Clicker Training

Rewarding good behavior as quickly as possible leads to faster learning on the dogs part. If you can give a reward simultaneous with the good behavior, that is ideal. But not always possible. You don’t always have a treat ready as fast as your dog reacts to a command, but you do have reflexes that can make a sound.

Here’s how it works in a nutshell…You give the command, your dog does the command, you click the clicker to signal that he has done good! Then you follow with a treat. Eventually your dog associates the clicker sound with doing something good. Therefore rewarding him for doing other things, comes much easier.

More Info…

Our good friends at “Whole Dog Journal” give more training detail in this very informative article.

Clicker Training Class

Kwanho Song is our expert at AZ Dog Sports. He has the perfect class for you on Mondays at 11am. Call us to sign up today! 602-237-6775 Bring your dog and your reflexes!

Dog Swim Lessons

Tired of walking your dog at 4:00 am to avoid the blistering Phoenix heat?

Looking at your pool and wishing your dog could swim?

Guess what????? WE OFFER DOG SWIM LESSONS!

We all know Phoenix summers are hard on our pets. Yet we also understand the importance of exercise for them as well. Swimming is the perfect (and cooler) alternative to your daily walks. Swimming helps keep your dog cool and also provides a release for his energy.

Not All Dogs Know How To Swim

Sadly we’ve heard too many stories of dogs falling into pools and drowning because they couldn’t swim or didn’t know how to get out. Properly done, dogs and puppies can be taught how to get into the pool safely; and most importantly where the steps are to get out. During a swim lesson we will teach your dog these critical elements.

My Dog Loves The Lake But Hates The Pool

People often say “my dog goes into the lake fine but will not get into the pool”. For dogs it’s about depth perception. When they look at a pool they cannot see or visualize the bottom. Lakes and streams are easy to wade into but a pool has a step down and they just don’t see the bottom. We are literally asking them to take a leap of faith by stepping off into what they see as oblivion.

Should Kids & Dogs Swim Together

If you also have children, we can help teach you ways to keep everyone safe when your dog is around. No one wants to swim with a dog that scratches them in its eagerness to play. We will talk to your children about the safest way to play with the dog in the pool. We will teach them when and when not to play with the dog in the pool.

No pool? No problem!

We have access to a pool for lessons! We can teach your dog to be comfortable in any pool and teach you the proper way to introduce them to a friend’s pool.

One Hour Swim Lessons

Our dog swim lesson takes only 1 hour of your time. If you have two or more dogs that need lessons, we will teach them individually. Typically we can accomplish both lessons on the same day. Most dogs learn the lesson easily and in the first hour. With continued follow up on your part, we seldom need to come back for a second lesson. Instead what we usually hear is “I can’t keep my dog out of the pool now! “

Please call us to schedule a lesson before a tragedy happens.

Even the dog that is afraid of the pool and wouldn’t go near it under normal circumstances, can fall in when chasing a ball or a bird.

~Karen Burleson

AZ Dog Sports • Dog Training Gym

602-237-6775

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AZ Dog Smart Academy • School For Dog Trainers