different disciplines for dogs.....

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Slightlyconfused

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As title, my nearly two yr old collie has mild hip dysplasia so agility is out. Vet said keep him to only lead walks but i told him no. He is a collie, he wants to run i would much rather him have a happy fun filled shorter life than play it safe with his hips and him.be unhappy.

so i wad wondering as he is so.smart what other disciplines are there for us to do?
 
Have you considered hydrotherapy? I've seen it work wonders on hip/elbow dysplasia dogs because done well, it builds the muscles around the joints to help support them and slows deterioration. It's not cheap but some insurance companies will pay towards it. Most dogs love it even if they aren't natural water puppies beforehand.

If you do go ahead, make sure you only use a hydrotherapist that only takes vet referrals and is able to explain their plans for your dog - I've seen some some centres that don't do this (I'm thinking of one in particular that opened in this area that swam every dog for 45 minutes regardless unlike the place that my dog went that he started off swimming for 5 - 8 minutes 3 times a week. He would have collapsed and/or damaged himself if he had swum much more than that to start with.)

My rottie came on in leaps and bounds with hydrotherapy after a couple of major leg ops and a diagnosis of HD - the HD wasn't bad but was contributing to the difficulty of getting muscle on his back end after a long time on crate and lead rest. With in 3 months you could see improvement and within 6 months he was like a different dog plus he loved it.:)
 
Competitive obedience and rally obedience is worth looking at as it encourages the dog to think for its self. If you don't want to compete but just train then working trials are fab and the nose work would help to mentally and physically tire your dog. Working trials jumps however would be not a good idea so you would not actually b able to compete. Unfortunately in the UK there are no pure tracking competition
Look at the kennel club website for details of other dog sports
 
Any kind of scent work would probably be ideal. I went on a John Rogerson 4 day course called Scene of Crime Investigation. It was brilliant, very interesting and stimulating for both me and my dog. No climbing over steep walls, fences etc, unlike working trials. I wonder too, whether your dog could perhaps make a good PAT dog???
 
Tracking was my first thought too. You can do pure tracking in Schutzhund/IPO but you have to do the obedience/companion dog entry test first. However it's v methodical and not as 'real world' as Working Trials tracking and some people find it v boring to watch and train :p
I can't speak for KC/WT obedience but some of the obedience we do is quite high impact/repetitive which might not actually be ideal, but maybe I'm being over-fluffy :p

Keep him lean and muscled and I think he should be fine :)
 
Thanks guys. He is nice and lean and we ate building muscle. A friend is a canine physio so is going to with my vets help out with exercises etc

he comes running up the yard three times a week and there is hill work there, i cant stop him jumping the xc jumps on his own. I figured if he wants to do it let him. The rest is lead and mental work.

i was thinking about tracking, sounded very interesting and fun for him.

as for a PAC dog, that is something we will be doing, i took him to my sisters care home and he was very very good with the residents. Just sat next to them.while they stroked him. We were all very proud of him as he can be a little nervous.

lots of googling to do!:)
 
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