What can I do with my dog?

Agility is a growing dog sport in the United States, with over 1 million entries to the AKC's Agility Program each year. Dogs race against a clock as they navigate an obstacle course with strong concentration and speed.

Barn hunt is designed to give dogs that have traditionally been used to Hunt vermin above ground a sport where they can show off their rat hunting skills. Barn Hunt was created to allow any canine to participate in a fun dog sport that tests his hunting skills and has placements, titles and championships.

A conformation show, also referred to as a breed show, is a kind of dog show in which a judge familiar with a specific dog breed evaluates individual purebred dogs for how well the dogs conform to the established breed type for their breed, as described in a breed's individual breed standard.

Dock diving or dock jumping is the sport of dogs competing to jump the greatest distance or the greatest height from a dock into a pool or other body of water. Some dock diving competitions also include speed retrieves and events combining the three disciplines of height, distance and speed.  Normally the dog's handler stands on the dock and throws a toy or "bumper" into the water for the dog to retrieve after jumping.

A field trial is a competitive event at which dogs compete against one another for placements. There are field trials for retrievers, pointing dogs and flushing dogs. Field trialsare usually organized by kennel clubs or other gun dog organizations.

Hunt tests were designed to evaluate the abilities of various types of dogs by testingthem against a standard. ... In the case of the sporting breeds, these titles would be the Junior Hunter (JH), Senior Hunter (SH), and the Master Hunter (MH). The sporting breeds include spaniels, retrievers, and pointing dogs.

AKC Lure Coursing is a sport which tests the inherent coursingcharacteristics of sighthound breeds. ... Most all sighthound breeds love lure coursing events.

Obedience trials are open to all dogs. ... All-breed Obedience Trials — the most common types of trials — are open to the 192 breeds and varieties of dogs recognized by the AKC, as well as mixed-breeds and foundation service stock breeds.

AKC Scent Work is a sport that mimics the task of working detection dogs to locate a scent and communicate to the handler that the scent has been found.

 So what do you do with your ever-nosey dog? Get him involved in an AKC Tracking event where he can sniff and smell to his heart’s content and demonstrate his natural ability to recognize and follow a scent. It’s a perfect way for you and your dog to enjoy many hours together, outside in the fresh air, honing his natural abilities. 

Do you and your dog love to be the life of the party by showing off his arsenal of tricks? Then he might be perfectly primed to earn AKC Trick Dog titles!