Dog Activities

[goReptiles]

My APBT pup is very active. I'd like to get her into some activities. Do you guys have any suggestions?

I've thought weight pull, but I'm not too keen on the harnesses that are put on the dogs for the activity. It's something I'm still thinking about though.

Can't do agility because, even at 20, I have terrible knees, as I've dislocated them both before, and the ligaments don't hold properly. I don't really have anyone to do agility with her. I have a few obstacles that I made a long time ago, and could gently guide her through a bar jump and a hoop jump (if the hoola hoop is still good).

Basic obedience, we're working on, but I don't think that would take the energy out of her.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Mel&Keith]

Maybe you could get her to play Frisbee or at least fetch a ball or something. That way you don't have to run with her. If you want her to be social with other dogs you could try flyball. http://www.flyball.org/

 

[techgirl]

What about a dog park? Is there one near you? I take mine to one a few blocks from my house and it wears her out as well as socializes her.

 

[The Sunset Gang]

I agree with techgirl. Dog parks are wonderful things. You just let your dog go while you just sit there and talk with the other owners. Granted not all dogs get along sometimes, but you just need to keep an eye on things. Good Luck!

 

[goReptiles]

We throw the tennis ball, but she gives up after a while and sits and gnaws on it.

The dog park isn't open yet. They're building a huge rescue shelter with a vet and dog park down the street from my house, but it won't be opened for a while. We still do the unleashed thing at the regular park during the week, so we don't get caught having her off leash. ha.

I may look into flyball. I hadn't thought of that one.

 

[geckofreak570]

http://www.pbrc.net/dogpark.html you might want to read this

 

[Kimjorg]

I have 2 pit bulls and when they were both really little we went back and forth with bringing them to dog parks...with much research we have unfortunately decided not to bring either of them to dog parks. Now we completely trust our dogs and they have never done anything violent but I know that alot of people don't trust pit bulls and I do not want to step on anyones toes. Instead we road around town at different times for a few days and looked at things such as public soccer fields football fields etc. We found a great soccer field that actually had a water hose and it also had public human bathrooms for us so both the dogs and us had everything we woud need while we were out playing. I love the soccer field becasue it gave the dogs plenty of room to run..it happened to be fenced in so we wouldn't have to worry about cars or anyone else sneaking up the dogs and they wouldn't get distracted (SoCo seems to get a little spacey sometimes lol) They can run around like maniacs with the ball or frisbsy and we don;t have to chase them around. Also about the weight pulling you can make your own harness to comfortably fit your dog and pit bulls love having the challenge of pulling. Sorry i got a little long winded