Winter Dog Sports – the Lack of Snow Doesn’t Ruin it All

Winter doesn’t need to be a synonym for tiredness and lying on a sofa in the comfort of your home. This year, there wasn’t much snow. However, this doesn’t need to stand between you and your dog’s walking outside and having fun.

Some winter dog sports can barely be done without snow, cross-country skiing or dog sled with mud is probably not what you’re looking for. However, there are other sports we can enjoy even without snow. If you like dogtrekking or canicross in summer, you don’t have to take a break in winter. Quite the reverse, this season is great to train endurance and strengthen the capacity of lungs and the heart. Tips on what to do to enjoy your time outside without undesired consequences are in this article.

After all, mushing is enjoyable even without snow. It doesn’t have to be a sled really, one or two dogs can pull a cart, a bike or a scooter. This sport can also be a whole-year thing in its varieties. Your dog doesn’t have to be draft breed to try mushing, all dogs who like pulling can do it and enjoy the activity. You can find a few tips on how to begin here.

If you’re lucky and you live in the mountains or somewhere else with snow, you can use the above-mentioned sled. If you don’t have the pack, don’t be sad. Skijöring is quite some fun as well. You can also harness your dog when going country-skiing. If you’re new in this sport, I recommend going to some less busy routes where stepping aside of the track from time to time won’t be such a problem.

Harnessing is not your thing but you need to occupy or exhaust your dog? You can try coursing – chasing a lure in snow. Even though the racing season is summer, training takes place in the course of the whole year. So, you can come across marked routes with stretched ropes and lures on fields in winter as well. A dog should chase the lure on the route and catch it in the end. With a lot of curves, the route can be even several kilometres long.

You can also enjoy simple fetching in snow. However, colourful fetching aids will be more useful than a typical tennis ball, frisbee or aerobie discs which leave a noticeable mark when they fall will be perfect.

Just don’t forget that a dog needs a special pulling harness for drafting. Another equipment for winter sports which should go without saying is active wear and potentially also shoes for your dog(s).

Related articles

Cat expressions of love

Although it might appear that the cat doesn’t give a tail about you and it is indifferent towards you, maybe you will still find some displays of affection in its behaviour. Do you know how cats show such affection towards a person?

Cats need grass

Cats love grass. They nibble at it if it's to clean their belly from hairs or just for fun. In addition, if you get a cat its own flowerpot, you can hope that it will leave your other plants alone :).

Do you know how to properly remove a tick?

Whether you remove a tick from a dog’s or cat’s fur the right way might affect whether the animal will become infected with Lyme disease or another malign disease transmitted by ticks. Have you got the right technique and tools?

How to detect a Lyme disease infection in a dog

Just like with people, also in dogs, Lyme disease is a very grave illness. There are an estimated 20% of ticks infected in the Czech Republic. And because despite the use of antiparasitic agents, your dog might get a tick from time to time, it’s good...

Even cats have their drugs

I’ve already written about cat mint, today, we’ll take a look at another, lesser known drugs. Since not all the cats respond to all of them and they don’t respond to everything the same way. Therefore, if you didn’t succeed with cat mint, maybe you’ll...

First aid for hyperthermia in an animal

I’ve already written about the fact that you’re not supposed to leave your dog closed in a car on summer days or on how to prevent hyperthermia in cats and dogs. So you have mastered the prevention already. But it is also necessary to know how to...

How chinchillas got almost exterminated

Without a question, chinchillas are beautiful and cute furry animals with large ears, a long tail and distinctive eyes. Do you know where they actually come from, what their name means and that we almost succeeded in nearly exterminating them before...

The Mystery of Cat Tongues

You have probably noticed that cat tongues are quite unique. They are rough and somehow scratchy. It seemed weird to American biologists and therefore they decided to look deeper into it.

How to easily understand the cat food selection

It can be quite a task to choose the right pet food precisely for your cat. To even understand the contents... That’s why we’re going to take a look today what to focus on, what to look for in the contents and what you should rather avoid.