Below are a few activities that you can do with your curly!
WORKING
Gun dogs, or bird dogs, are types of hunting dogs developed to assist hunters in finding and retrieving game. The term hunting dog is broad and includes all breeds and skills of hunting canines, but “gun dogs” refers to canines that are trained to work alongside a loud firearm while hunting or retrieving game.
These highly skilled dogs are trained to work in partnership with their human handlers to locate and retrieve game, and the bond between a gundog and their handler is often unbreakable.
SCENT WORK
Scent Work is a sport which allows your dog to harness their innate sense of smell to detect odours. Using the same approach as detection dogs who learn to discern odours such as narcotics or explosives, Scent Work teaches your dog how to identify a variety of essential oils, such as birch, anise and clove.
Scent Work is a positive, challenging activity that allows dogs the opportunity to use their strongest natural sense in a way that’s fun, engaging, and that builds and strengthens a foundation of trust between the handler and dog.
OBEDIENCE
Obedience is for all dogs
Simple behaviours like sit, down, stay, come, and leave it are essential for a well-behaved pet. You can challenge your dog even more by teaching him more advanced behaviours like ‘go to place’, formal heeling, roll over, etc.
Competitive obedience is all about the training you and your dog have achieved, from puppy classes at your local dog training club to competitions throughout the country.
AGILITY
Agility is a fun, popular dog sport. It involves the dog being guided around a course of between 16 and 20 obstacles by the handler in the fastest time possible, without incurring faults. Its a great way to keep dogs fit, helps to prevent obesity, increases endurance, strengthens bones and joints and keeps the mind occupied, its great for curlies who get bored easily as the course is always changing, so you are not repeating over and over. Its a great way to bond and have fun with your dog, classes should be
conducted in a safe environment and that uses positive reward base training.
Agility is a sport for all levels, whether you want to compete or just have fun, there are different types of competition, the main one being kennel club licensed shows, which
have a grade system that is 1-7 one being the beginner up to 7, then there are champion classes and various qualifiers for shows like crufts and discover dogs. With classes like ABC which is a good class for a curly, as its anything but collie! You progress through the grades by winning a certain number of Agility and jumping classes
to go up to the next grade. Once a handler has got a dog to grade 7 they are no longer able to start a new dog at grade one as they are considered experienced, so they start at grade 2.
There are other shows like UKA and they have their own system for progression and some smaller independent shows.
Agility should not be undertaken by dogs under 12 months of age due to their bone development, but some foundation exercises can be suitable for younger dogs.
Only dogs of 18 calendar months and over can compete at kennel club licensed agility shows.