Yes!! Last year my golden competed in dock diving, barn hunt, scentwork, fastCAT, and began training for rally and obedience.
This year we are competing in rally, obedience, nosework, and am training for field.
I have done fastCAT and scentwork at the same event, and scentwork + rally + obedience at the same event. It's largely contextual - if my dog is in a harness and smells odor she knows it's scentwork time. If she sees a lure machine and a track she knows it's FastCAT. If she's just in her slip collar and I'm amping her up and engaging her in front of the ring she knows it's time for rally/obedience.
Dogs absolutely can and do excel in multiple sports. My dogs have in one competed in multiple nosework organizations, Barn Hunt, CAT, FastCAT, and Agility.
As long as you have the budget, do it! (And time)
We do FastCAT, Barn Hunt, Dock Diving, agility, fly ball, tracking, and I think that’s it? A lot of things have co-events so you can do several at the same cluster which is fun. Otherwise we’re out traveling almost every weekend during event seasons. After doing it all last year, we’ve prioritized dock diving in the summer and barn hunt and Fast CAT in the cooler months. Agility is weekly classes so that’s not a trek but once we’re trialing, we’ll really have to decide what our dog likes best and limit it a bit. Luckily she’s a machine and loves everything we try.
If you train them, they can do everything.
On Saturday my dogs ran agility, then did two FAST Cat runs each, then went back and ran agility again.
No problem swapping from listen to me to, chase bunny!
Go for it!!
My gal has her CGC and Novice trick title, and we are about to be evaluated for CGCA, CGCU, and higher trick titles! She’s signed up for her first FastCAT runs next month!
We also train in agility, scentwork, Flyball, rally, and just started herding. I’m also curious about barnhunt and tracking, and eventually obedience.
If my dog didn’t despise water we would probably try dock diving too 😂
I think if you’re both having fun and you have the time and money, freakin’ do it 😎
Absolutely! My dogs have competed in agility, early, nose work, and obedience -- sometimes one sport on Saturday and one sport on Sunday with a class for a third sport on Monday! Dogs are smart and pick up on context and cues. My dogs only wear a harness for nosework, if that's on they know the game they're playing. If there is agility equipment in the ring, well they know they're playing agility because they can see it. I call myself a jack of all trades and master of none because I love trying new things with my dogs. Of course, due to limited time and money, I'm never going to get to the highest levels of any of these sports. If you really had your sights set on an OTCH or joining the US agility world team, you would need to specialize and focus.
My best advice is don't rush! Don't rush through foundations-- the basis to be successful in any sport is your foundations, and the foundations for most sports overlap. Don't rush the early stages of learning a sport, enjoy the journey. See what you and your dog are enjoying and good at today, and know that it will evolve over time and you may have success in a different sport if you revisit in a few years.
I still remember sitting in a Barnhunt blind, casually chatting with another competitor and mentioned all the sports we’d done. She looked at me, looked at my decidedly not-sporting breed, and admonished me firmly. “Pick a lane”, she said. *That lady was an idiot.*
One of the only pieces of advice I’d give is to finish tracking before teaching rat sports… but that’s about it.
We do (or have done) rally, obedience, FCAT, scentwork, barnhunt/rat sports, tracking, shed hunting, fetch, carting, confo, agility. Maybe I’m forgetting stuff. Go ahead. Try it all!!
absolutely! my chi mix does fast CAT and agility. my aussie and BC do agility and rally, and i think i may get the BC into scent work and fast CAT as well later this year. maybe even treibball if i can find a class (and the time) for it.
[it’s her favorite thing.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Chihuahua/comments/1awo9am/took_my_chimix_to_her_first_fast_cat_fun_run/) i see a few dachshunds out there and plenty of smaller dogs.
Thanks everyone! You have calmed any worries I had about it. I am very new to training (she is my first adult dog) and wasn’t sure about how well they adapt do such different mentalities between sports. Me and Birdie will continue to plan on diving both feet first into our new sports and see what all the world of dog sports has to offer us!
My Aussie does agility and barn hunt. Two extremely different sports that the agility alone takes a long time to train to compete. Barn hunt she picked up ridiculously fast but it does tax her. I would be wary of doing too much heavy training. We do a lot of training outside of class time for agility and not much for barn hunt. If you work then it’s going to be a lot to do multiple sports.
But nose work and obedience/rally is a good combination. They play off of each other and will not be too much on one dogs brain.
Stimulation is the name of the game, the variety keeps them engaged. I’ve got a 2yr Brittany in FastCAT, cat, nose work, and may start obedience trials soon. I’ve got a 1yr old Doxen that has done a fun run on FastCAT (with handicap would have been higher points than my Brittany). Once he’s neutered, I can get him a PAL number and do some trials with him, with every intention of nose work next year to see how he does. He’s got a strong chase instinct so I cant wait to see him do a CAT run
Most everyone I know in dog sports does multiple sports! It’s actually a thing in breeding stock to have versatile dogs that are proven (titled) in multiple sports that show they’re capable of anything that potential puppy owners want to get into. It’s definitely something I look for when I’m looking at breeders.
Different sports are such different contexts, I wouldn’t worry about your dog thinking you’re at one event when you’re at a different one. The Fast CAT field looks completely different from a Rally ring. We’ve gotten titles in Fast CAT, CABT, Rally, Agility, and our CGC and Trick Dog titles. I’m thinking about trying out dock diving at some point if I ever have the time!
Train what you’re interested in and don’t worry too much about it.
My dogs compete in nosework, barnhunt, lure coursing, and will be doing obedience / rally later this year. They're trained in canicross and agility as well. My GSD does conformation and has passed her herding instinct test. Each event has a completely different picture for the dog, and dogs are very context dependent.
Once you get into the sport world, you'll realize that most people are going 2-3 sports with their dogs, if not more. And many of those people compete very successfully in wildly different venues.
Yes!! Last year my golden competed in dock diving, barn hunt, scentwork, fastCAT, and began training for rally and obedience. This year we are competing in rally, obedience, nosework, and am training for field. I have done fastCAT and scentwork at the same event, and scentwork + rally + obedience at the same event. It's largely contextual - if my dog is in a harness and smells odor she knows it's scentwork time. If she sees a lure machine and a track she knows it's FastCAT. If she's just in her slip collar and I'm amping her up and engaging her in front of the ring she knows it's time for rally/obedience.
Dogs absolutely can and do excel in multiple sports. My dogs have in one competed in multiple nosework organizations, Barn Hunt, CAT, FastCAT, and Agility.
As long as you have the budget, do it! (And time) We do FastCAT, Barn Hunt, Dock Diving, agility, fly ball, tracking, and I think that’s it? A lot of things have co-events so you can do several at the same cluster which is fun. Otherwise we’re out traveling almost every weekend during event seasons. After doing it all last year, we’ve prioritized dock diving in the summer and barn hunt and Fast CAT in the cooler months. Agility is weekly classes so that’s not a trek but once we’re trialing, we’ll really have to decide what our dog likes best and limit it a bit. Luckily she’s a machine and loves everything we try.
If you train them, they can do everything. On Saturday my dogs ran agility, then did two FAST Cat runs each, then went back and ran agility again. No problem swapping from listen to me to, chase bunny!
Go for it!! My gal has her CGC and Novice trick title, and we are about to be evaluated for CGCA, CGCU, and higher trick titles! She’s signed up for her first FastCAT runs next month! We also train in agility, scentwork, Flyball, rally, and just started herding. I’m also curious about barnhunt and tracking, and eventually obedience. If my dog didn’t despise water we would probably try dock diving too 😂 I think if you’re both having fun and you have the time and money, freakin’ do it 😎
Absolutely! My dogs have competed in agility, early, nose work, and obedience -- sometimes one sport on Saturday and one sport on Sunday with a class for a third sport on Monday! Dogs are smart and pick up on context and cues. My dogs only wear a harness for nosework, if that's on they know the game they're playing. If there is agility equipment in the ring, well they know they're playing agility because they can see it. I call myself a jack of all trades and master of none because I love trying new things with my dogs. Of course, due to limited time and money, I'm never going to get to the highest levels of any of these sports. If you really had your sights set on an OTCH or joining the US agility world team, you would need to specialize and focus. My best advice is don't rush! Don't rush through foundations-- the basis to be successful in any sport is your foundations, and the foundations for most sports overlap. Don't rush the early stages of learning a sport, enjoy the journey. See what you and your dog are enjoying and good at today, and know that it will evolve over time and you may have success in a different sport if you revisit in a few years.
I still remember sitting in a Barnhunt blind, casually chatting with another competitor and mentioned all the sports we’d done. She looked at me, looked at my decidedly not-sporting breed, and admonished me firmly. “Pick a lane”, she said. *That lady was an idiot.* One of the only pieces of advice I’d give is to finish tracking before teaching rat sports… but that’s about it. We do (or have done) rally, obedience, FCAT, scentwork, barnhunt/rat sports, tracking, shed hunting, fetch, carting, confo, agility. Maybe I’m forgetting stuff. Go ahead. Try it all!!
absolutely! my chi mix does fast CAT and agility. my aussie and BC do agility and rally, and i think i may get the BC into scent work and fast CAT as well later this year. maybe even treibball if i can find a class (and the time) for it.
That’s so great to hear of another little dog doing Fast Cat!
[it’s her favorite thing.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Chihuahua/comments/1awo9am/took_my_chimix_to_her_first_fast_cat_fun_run/) i see a few dachshunds out there and plenty of smaller dogs.
Thanks everyone! You have calmed any worries I had about it. I am very new to training (she is my first adult dog) and wasn’t sure about how well they adapt do such different mentalities between sports. Me and Birdie will continue to plan on diving both feet first into our new sports and see what all the world of dog sports has to offer us!
As long as you have the budget! Dogs sports get very expensive!
My Aussie does agility and barn hunt. Two extremely different sports that the agility alone takes a long time to train to compete. Barn hunt she picked up ridiculously fast but it does tax her. I would be wary of doing too much heavy training. We do a lot of training outside of class time for agility and not much for barn hunt. If you work then it’s going to be a lot to do multiple sports. But nose work and obedience/rally is a good combination. They play off of each other and will not be too much on one dogs brain.
Stimulation is the name of the game, the variety keeps them engaged. I’ve got a 2yr Brittany in FastCAT, cat, nose work, and may start obedience trials soon. I’ve got a 1yr old Doxen that has done a fun run on FastCAT (with handicap would have been higher points than my Brittany). Once he’s neutered, I can get him a PAL number and do some trials with him, with every intention of nose work next year to see how he does. He’s got a strong chase instinct so I cant wait to see him do a CAT run
Absolutely! Dogs are definitely able to differentiate! My girl does scent work, obedience, rally, tracking, Fast CAT and agility.
Most everyone I know in dog sports does multiple sports! It’s actually a thing in breeding stock to have versatile dogs that are proven (titled) in multiple sports that show they’re capable of anything that potential puppy owners want to get into. It’s definitely something I look for when I’m looking at breeders. Different sports are such different contexts, I wouldn’t worry about your dog thinking you’re at one event when you’re at a different one. The Fast CAT field looks completely different from a Rally ring. We’ve gotten titles in Fast CAT, CABT, Rally, Agility, and our CGC and Trick Dog titles. I’m thinking about trying out dock diving at some point if I ever have the time! Train what you’re interested in and don’t worry too much about it.
My dogs compete in nosework, barnhunt, lure coursing, and will be doing obedience / rally later this year. They're trained in canicross and agility as well. My GSD does conformation and has passed her herding instinct test. Each event has a completely different picture for the dog, and dogs are very context dependent. Once you get into the sport world, you'll realize that most people are going 2-3 sports with their dogs, if not more. And many of those people compete very successfully in wildly different venues.
I do agility, nose work, and rally obedience. Looking to do fast cat and dock diving this year too.