List of dog sports

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dog sports are activities that involve dogs.

Training a retrieve in Schutzhund, a dog sport.
Training a retrieve in Schutzhund, a dog sport.

There is much discussion about what exactly defines a sport[note] for dogs. Some issues:

  • Must a sport be entertaining to watch? Agility, Disc dog, and Dock Jumping are very entertaining to spectators, and often televised.
  • If a human companion is not actively involved, is it actually a sport? Take greyhound racing, for example, or hunting from, say, a duck blind, from which the dog retrieves the game.
  • Is any activity a sport if a casual observer does not understand the nature of the competition? For example, in a conformation show the handler and dog move around a ring for a judge to evaluate the dog's appearance and structure; the skill and knowledge required are not obvious to those uninterested in the sport.

This list is intended only to represent anything that anyone is likely to refer to as a dog sport, not to argue its validity as sport.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.


[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

note: ^ The oldest definition of sport (1300) is of anything humans find amusing or entertaining.[1] Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise.[2] Roget's defines the noun sport as an "Activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation.[3] An example of a more sharply defined meaning is "an athletic activity where one competitor or a team of competitors plays against another competitor or group of competitors [with] a conclusive method of scoring...not determined by a judge."[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Douglas Harper. sport (n.). Online Etymological Dictionary. Retrieved on 04/20, 2008.
  2. ^ [1967] Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, The Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff (in English), Springfield, MA U.S.A.: G&C Merriam Company, 2206, sport. 
  3. ^ [1995] Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 
  4. ^ Andrew Goodman (Friday, July 27, 2007). That's absurd, golf isn't a sport. New Jersey Herald (newspaper). Retrieved on 05/16, 2008.


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