Discover 13 Dog Sports for Active Dogs

Since most dogs don’t have the chance to do the jobs people originally bred them to do, they need an outlet for their physical and mental energy. There are dozens of dog sports you can choose, depending on your interests and your dog’s capabilities. 

Fortunately, most able-bodied dogs are happy to do anything you want, as long as it’s with you! The hardest decision to make is which sports to try with your active dogs. 

How Dog Sports Benefit Humans and Dogs

Once you get involved in sports with your dog or dogs, you’ll find yourself sucked into the fun — just remember not to take things too seriously. At the end of the day, if you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong. Besides, dog sports impart numerous benefits to both dogs and their human handlers. 

Stronger, Deeper Bond Between Dog and Handler

All that training and practice you’ll do with your dog as you both learn the sport pays dividends. You’ll discover that your dogs are smarter than you realize, and they like doing things with you. 

Healthier Dogs — Mentally and Physically

Dogs are designed to wander and explore. When we plop them in the backyard but don’t take them for walks, their mental and physical health suffers. Breeds meant to work suffer even more. 

When you get started in a dog sport, your dog will get stronger and healthier. But they’ll also become more confident and mentally calm. 

Are Some Dogs Better than Others in Dog Sports?

It depends. Some sports, like lure coursing, were specifically designed for speeding sighthounds. But even non-sight hounds that love running can enjoy lure coursing. 

You need to take into account your dog’s physical health and characteristics to determine whether a sport is a good fit. Some, like pugs and bulldogs, don’t do well in physically demanding sports, but they can do wonderfully in rally obedience or mantrailing. 

The bottom line is there are enough sports and activities that, no matter what breed or mix of dog breeds, there’s one out there perfect for you and your dog. 

Competition Obedience

This formal activity has specific rules but isn’t breed-specific. In competition obedience, dogs must heel, perform directed retrieves, and other skills. Competition obedience requires precision in movements that improve your dog’s overall behavior and manageability. It isn’t as exciting to watch, but watching dogs that clearly love working with their handlers is a joy. 

Rally Obedience

Less formal than traditional obedience, rally obedience is its fun cousin. In rally-o, dog and handler teams make their way through a course consisting of signs that indicate which skill to demonstrate. Dogs have to heel, jump over obstacles, and perform behaviors like spin, sit, or down. 

It’s great for handlers who love teaching their dog tricks but aren’t interested in traditional obedience. Rally-o is also a fantastic confidence booster for less confident dogs — the more they learn, the more confident they become. 

Agility

Dog agility is perfect for athletic, agile, and active dogs. The sport’s intensity makes it unsuitable for dogs with back or joint problems. But if your dog loves climbing, jumping, and running through tunnels, agility may be perfect! This sport involves guiding your dog through an obstacle course that includes teeter-totters, jumps, weave poles, and more. It’s fast-paced and open to all breeds and mixed breeds.

Robin Barber, owner of Cowtown Dog Sports, compares agility to a dance. You’ll see the best handlers and dogs move through courses with coordinated movements that adjust and flow on the fly. It’s beautiful and exciting to watch. 

Flyball

The dog world’s version of fetch combined with a relay race involves four dogs and their handlers, four jumps, and four tennis balls. 

Each dog runs over the hurdles and hits a ball box that pops the tennis ball out for them to carry back over the line before the next dog runs. The space between each jump stays consistent at 10 feet, but the jump height is determined by the shortest dog. So, each team usually has a short but quick dog to get the lowest jump height they can. 

Flyball tournaments are loud, fast, and fun. But, if your dog has resource guarding or issues being close to other dogs while under pressure, another dog sport may be a better choice.

Canicross

If you love running with your dogs and don’t mind getting pulled along with them, canicross may be your next dog sport. Designed as an off-season practice sport for sled dogs, canicross consists of a dog and handler team. They’re attached to one another by a specialized harness and a waist-belt with an elastic leash to reduce the shock to dogs and runners.

Serious canicross competitors learn to run faster because of the dog’s pulling, and while it started as an off-season practice sport, canicross has grown into a sport all of its own. It’s ideal for dogs that love to run. The breed doesn’t matter, but sled dogs like huskies and malamutes are great candidates.

Skijoring

Skijoring isn’t isolated to using dogs, although dogs have been used for thousands of years for skijoring. Modern skijoring can use dogs, horses, reindeer, or even snowmobiles. Dog skijoring is similar to canicross, except the human is on skis while the dog pulls instead of running.

Snow-loving breeds with enough strength to pull are perfect for skijoring. However, any dog that loves running and pulling can enjoy skijoring, but they need to be healthy enough to handle it.

Sledding

If you happen to have a few dogs, some snow in the winter, and a sled, we have the sport for you! Dog sledding is perhaps one of the oldest jobs for dogs. Dog sled teams used to transport food and medicine to remote areas and were the primary transportation for many during long, cold winter months. 

Now, dog sledding is a sport and vacation! You can set up your dogs and teach them to pull the sled or purchase a sledding tour. However, we’re betting that you’ll be hooked on sledding as a sport.

Breeds like huskies and malamutes were specifically bred for pulling sleds, so their bodies are perfectly suited to dog sledding. However, dogs with enough body mass and strength can also enjoy it.

Mantrailing

Although mantrailing isn’t an exciting spectator sport, it is the perfect use for a dog’s insanely accurate nose! This newer dog sport is a type of hide-and-seek where a person hides somewhere after laying a trail and the dog follows the trail to find them. 

However, unlike many dog sports, mantrailing is great for all dogs — all breeds, most health levels, three-legged dogs, old dogs, and even reactive dogs. The environment is completely adjustable to suit the dog out trailing at that moment.

While bloodhounds are the scent-tracking dogs par excellence, all dog breeds have super-sniffers capable of following scent trails.

Treibball

In a sheepless version of herding, dogs move yoga balls from one part of a field into a soccer goal-sized area where their handler waits. For a successful treibball round, dogs must work at a distance from their handlers and follow directional cues — arcing around the balls to the left or the right, then moving them to the goal.

Treibball can be physically intense, but it’s more of a mental exercise than anything. The sport started in 2008 and made it to the U.S. around 2011. This dog sport is perfect for herding breeds, but all dogs can enjoy it.

Lure Coursing

This sport is specifically designed to emulate what sighthounds do when they chase down small prey. In lure coursing, dogs chase a mechanically controlled lure. It started in the 1970s as a way to show that sighthounds can do what they were bred to do — chase down and bring back small prey.

Lure coursing relies on a dog’s natural instincts to chase moving objects, so dogs that love chasing birds and toys are a natural fit. Sighthounds’ special breeding makes them uniquely suited to the sport, but all dogs can participate in this high-octane activity. Because lure coursing is an intense speed-based sport, dogs must be physically fit enough to handle the stress. 

Drafting or Carting

Drafting and carting are the same thing, but the words get used interchangeably. Carts can have two or four wheels, depending on the purpose. Carts for weight tests are only two-wheeled, while the four-wheeled varieties are typically used around the farm or in parades. 

Some dog breeds were bred to work things other than moving livestock. Bernese mountain dogs, St. Bernards, and Newfoundlands also pulled carts. 

Protection Sports

Perhaps a little controversial in some circles, protection sports take advantage of dogs’ natural desire to protect their pack. While some people believe that protection training can a dog aggressive, this is false. Protection sports typically make dogs more stable mentally, but only some dogs have the temperament for it. Overly nervous, fearful dogs are unsuited to protection sports because the intensity often makes them more nervous and jittery.

Protection sports aren’t limited to particular breeds, but some breeds are far more successful than others. German shepherds, Dobermans, and Belgian malinois are all common breeds in protection sports. 

Dock Diving

Water-loving dogs launch into a pool in the dog world’s version of a long jump. The current record is over 30 feet, and jump classes are determined by how far dogs jump instead of their shoulder height. Dock diving is a summer sport that shuts down during the cold winter months, but in warm climates may go year-round. 

Physically fit dogs that love toys and water are great for dock diving — a sport that is open to all breeds.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © herreid/iStock via Getty Images