Activities with your Dog

The purpose of Conformation shows is to judge dogs (males) and females (bitches) based on the breed's standard (see the official Golden Retriever breed standard). The objective of this is to identify the dogs that are closest to the ...

The following is a list of titles and their abbreviations that can be awarded by the CKC and/or the AKC for various activities and events. They are sorted into titles that appear as a prefix and as a suffix.

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The ultimate challenge for retriever owners are the Field Trials! These tests are designed to test both the dog and the handler. Differing from the Working Certificate tests, the Retrieving Trials are competitive, meaning the dogs are competing against each other. It works as a series of eliminations until the best dogs are remaining to take the award placements.

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A Temperament Test consists of 10 tests which evaluate your dog's reaction to a variety of stimuli. They include approaching strangers, walking around in a crowd, having the crowd close in, loud unfamiliar noises, a surprising visual stimulus, uneven footing, and an unfriendly stranger.
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Can you imagine being in a hospital or a living somewhere where you could not have your pets around you? This is the reality for many people, but thanks to the kindness of many volunteers, many hospital or retirement centre residents have had the benefit of visits from people with their pets. The medical profession has for many years widely acknowledged that petting and stroking pets can have a calming effect, lower blood pressure and relieve tension.
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Flyball is a super-fast, exciting team sport.

Four dogs on a team participate in a relay race. The course consists of a starting line, four hurdles spaced ten feet apart and a box. The first hurdle is six feet from the start line and the box is fifteen feet from the last hurdle for a fifty-one foot overall length. The dogs jump the hurdles and step on a spring-loaded box that shoots out a tennis ball. The dog catches the tennis ball and then runs back over the four hurdles. When the dog crosses the starting line the next dog goes. The first team to have all four dogs run without errors wins the heat.
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Agility is a fun sport for both the dogs and their handlers. It is the training of dogs to navigate an obstacle course consisting of some or all of hurdles, weave poles, A-frame, tunnels (open or collapsed), dog walk, teeter-totter, cross-over, pause table and sometimes more!
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