Every dog already has a favourite sport. It just has not signed up yet
The dog who digs up the lawn, the dog who will not come out of the lake, the dog who stares at the fence line all afternoon: every one of them is closer to a sport than its owner realises. Our training curriculum sorts more than fifteen dog sports into families by what they ask a dog to do, and the lesson running underneath the whole list is matching the sport to the particular dog in front of you.
It gets wonderfully specific. Our curriculum pairs them up something like this:
For the dog who lives in the water: dock diving, where you throw a toy into a pool and the dog sprints down a dock about 40 feet long and launches after it.
For the dog who hunts: barn hunt, a search through a maze of hay bales, and before you worry, the rats are family pets in safe, aerated tubes.
For the dog who catches everything: disc dog, which is frisbee with judges.
For the dog who wants to pull: canicross, bikejoring and skijoring, where the dog tows you while you run, ride or ski.
The skill underneath all of it is watching a dog closely enough to work out what it was bred to love, and then giving that love somewhere proper to go. It is everyday trainer thinking, and it is the same lesson online or in person, because the curriculum is the same either way.
If you already catch yourself guessing which sport the dog next door would be brilliant at, you are doing the first part of this job for fun.
This piece is from Pet Career Weekly, a free weekly newsletter for future dog trainers, groomers and veterinary assistants. Read this week's full issue, or subscribe to get the next one, plus advice for your own career path.