Activities
Showing
Dog showing is one of the most popular activity for dog owners.
There are differant types of dog shows and all pedigree dogs can take part. Some of these shows is also qualifying show which willow you to show your dog at Crufts.
Showing or exhibiting dogs is an exciting activity where dogs compete against each other for prizes or awards.
At these shows your dogs attributes and conformation will be compared against a ‘breed standard’ for your dogs breed. For some this is great fun but for others it can often taken very seriously. Whatever level, people and there dogs always seem to enjoy it.
If its your first time showing your dog, it might be worth while to attend one of the local or minor dog showing days. These are held all over the country and the dog and handler will gain invaluable experience.
Once you think you are ready for the next stage of showing, you can then think about entering your first show.
Agility
Dog agility is a dog sport in which a handler directs a dog through an obstacle course in a race for both time and accuracy.
Dogs run off leash with no food or toys as incentives, and the handler can touch neither dog nor obstacles.
The handler’s controls are limited to voice, movement, and various body signals, requiring exceptional training of the animal and coordination of the handler.
As each course is different, handlers are allowed a short walk-through before the competition starts. The handler tends to run a path much different from the dog’s path, so the handler can sometimes spend quite a bit of time planning for what is usually a quick run.
Wild Fowling
Wildfowling is the tracking down of geese and ducks over foreshores and inland and coastal marshes.
Shooting of these birds takes place during the winter months in wet, muddy and often cold conditions, in the early morning and late afternoons.
Many wildfowlers do use any one of the 3 American Water Dogs to retrieve waterfowl. The use of a dog provides a number of advantages.
As duck hunting often takes place in these cold and wet locations, the use of a dog reduces the risk of a wildfowler of going into difficult locations and cold water to retrieve a shot or wounded bird.
The acute sense of smell allows thesedogs to find the dead or wounded birds where undergrowth and weeds can allow a bird to hide. The use of a dog ensures that a higher percentage of the birds shot end up on the table.
Scent Tracking
Scent tracking is often a mixture of both the air scent and the ground scent being left behind by an individual or animal. Dogs are able to determine a track scent by identifying a combination of both human / animal odours and environmental odours released by the individual or animal. The dogs then use the strength of this scent combination to determine the direction of a trail and track along that route.
A initial footstep / imprint left behind by a human / animal is much less potent than the last footstep taken by an individual / imprint left behind by a human / animal and the dog moves in the direction where the scent seems to become stronger.
Additionally, dogs have been observed to alternate between visual tracking and scent tracking depending on the circumstances of the environment. For the most part of tracking, the dogs have been shown to rely on visual, social or cognitive cues to identify the tracks of an individual or animal.
Truffle hunting
Hannah Greeno
“The Great British Truffle Festival for me is a celebration of our human connection to the natural world, what can be achieved when species come together and seek the messages of nature. I sometimes feel isolated in my obsessions with gifts from the Forest, but seeing so many people come together to celebrate their shared appreciation of the Truffle was inspirational and I left with a renewed sense of community and restored faith in all that is good and natural.
I was extremely impressed with all the dogs in attendance, they surpassed my expectations in terms of manners, behaviour, thriving in a festival environment and their human counterparts respectfully managing their dogs brilliantly in a very public environment.”
Thank you Hannah for in fact bringing us all together and initially introducing Stef and Jules to the festival! We are so glad that you will be joining us for another year, gifting us with your knowledge and experience from the world of scentwork training and judging.
More Details HERE