Sports for Pups

In the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 90 minutes outside of Arlington, is a farm where urban dogs go to blow off some steam and round up some sheep.

Susan Rhoades has been training dogs and dog-owners for years to move sheep, ducks and cattle at her 70-acre KeepStone Farm in Berryville. Many of her students drive over an hour to train with her, some for competition but most just for the fun of it.

"The dogs have fun and no one gets hurt," Rhoades said. "You watch them and you can just see how happy they are when they're working. A lot of these dogs would work until they die, they love it that much."

And all that work does more than spend energy. It creates a bond between owner and dog, where the dog learns to control its impulses, listening to commands over the instinctual prey drive.

"Quite a few people bring dogs out here because (the dog) has behavioral problems," Rhoades said. "Herding teaches a dog to listen. If they do things your way, they get to work the sheep, because the motivation is the work."

It might seem like a long haul for a lesson, but Rhoades takes all kinds of dogs, no matter their skill level or breed. She invites pet families to use her farm for a day trip full of fresh air and exercise for urban pooches.

If a family is serious about getting involved in herding, Rhoades will do instinct testing and start training, but she prefers to take dogs older than six months.

Urban Herding

Closer to home, dog owners can try treibball (pronounced try-ball), sometimes called urban herding or pushball.

In this new sport, which began in Eastern Europe with border collies, requires dogs to move large plastic balls, like yoga balls, into a goal by following voice commands or hand signals from their owner.

"Treibball gets dogs to use their brains and a little bit of their brawn," said Lisa Colon Tudor, a treibball trainer and owner of KissAble Canine in Arlington.

Treibball is accessible to any dog with basic obedience training, Colon Tudor said, and can teach impulse control while strengthening communication skills between owner and dog.

'It's a dance'

Melissa Frye's class at Woofs! Dog Training Center in Shirlington sends dogs flying over hurdles, shooting through tunnels, climbing up a wooden peak and jumping through hoops. Some run through the course with more grace than others, but all are eager – from the tiny intermediate-level Yorkie to the enormous competition-level mastiff.

"Agility requires two-way communication," Frye said. "You have to read your dog for stress signs. The dog communicates what he sees, and the handler guides the dog through the course. It's a dance."

One student, a Lab-mix named Indy, used to be afraid of everything, said owner Tracy Gruis of the Courthouse community. Then they started agility training, and Indy gained more confidence both in the agility ring and out.

"Now I have a completely different dog," Gruis said. "At home, in training, when we're out, a totally different dog."

It takes about two years of training to reach competitive skill levels, Frye said, but a dog-and-handler team can always learn more, can always find something to improve upon.

Rally-O

Another growing competitive sport for dogs is rally obedience, or rally-o, where dogs move through a course of obedience-style exercises. Sitting, staying, turning, heeling, jumping and rolling over all are less physical than zooming through an obstacle course, but teach skills that owners can use at home.

"The stuff that we teach in rally-o has 100-percent real-life application," said trainer Erica Pytlovany, of Woofs! Ballston campus.

Pytlovany said only about 20 percent of her students go on to compete. Most owners come to provide a mental outlet for their dogs and to keep up obedience training.

"The biggest benefit is that it gives you a structured activity to do with your dog," Pytlovany said.

Any dog can do well in rally-o with work, Pytlovany said – any breed at any age.

'Dogs already know how to do this'

After working as a bomb-dog handler for 15 years, Jacy Kelley founded Canine Copilots to train household pets in obedience.

Then he found a new sport emerging called nose work, in which dogs are taught to recognize and find scents. He introduced his retired Lab-mix bomb-sniffing dog Bones to the sport when Bones was 10 years old, and he excelled.

"Nose work is great because it's low-impact, and dogs already know how to do this," said Kelley, who lives in Woodbridge.

Unlike most other dog sports, reactive or aggressive dogs can do nose work, Kelley said, because they're seperated from other dogs as they train. Owners can build on positive experiences in nose work, acclimating their pets to other kinds of training and environments.

Nose work also requires very little specialized equipment, so it's easy to practice in an urban setting.

Dogs are trained to recognize certain scents and to expect a reward when they find those scents. As they train, dogs move up to more difficult scents.

"Dogs are already playing nose work as it is," Kelley said. "We're just giving them a target." 

Kelley teaches other dog trainers how to teach nose work, becuase the sport is still in its infancy.