Canicross - A Dog Sport

I have been thinking about writing this article for a while now and today I decided 'THAT'S IT, I AM WRITING IT :)

Canicross is just another dog sport. I'm going to say this again CANICROSS IS JUST ANOTHER DOG SPORT! Now repeat this a few more times in your mind until it starts to sound like a dog sport, ha ha.

I felt like I had to write this because everywhere you look canicross is promoted as an activity you do with your dog, every where you want and any time you want, as long as you have bought the right kit and your dog is 12 months of age of course. This is the case on social media and for the most part it is correct, it is an activity you can do with your dog, but so is obedience, tracking, mantrailing, flyball, agility, protection, nosework and the list can go on and on. If the activity involves training a dog to do certain behaviours or patterns of behaviours with the goal of achieving something - finding a scent, being obedient, going over obstacles as fast as possible and in canicross running a course as fast as you both can, and there is a form of testing the human and k9 skills - a race for canicross, then it is a dog sport and a dog sport requires setting the right foundations. For a young or novice dog this means developing a relationship with its handler and understanding teamwork, the handler developing a communication system (markers and being able to listen and recognise the handler's voice), socialisation in various environments and with various animals, creating a system of reinforcement and the dog learning that training with their handler brings good things (food, play etc.) then learning the canicross behaviours: pulling in harness, the concept of running a course (this is the one most handlers struggle with and a lot of issues arise from skipping this concept in training), directions, distance and distractions.

Jess at Alcester 2024 - The Mud Farm

If you do everything in the natural order, meaning starting with setting the right foundations, canicross training will feel so simple, yet most people get it completely wrong. They start by going to social runs. I don't have anything against social runs, I organise them too but I know the dogs that are coming, I know how they behave and how to avoid clashes between dogs, and we all run at our own pace, not as a group. The social runs I organise and lead are structured and they promote learning for the dogs and their handlers.

For a novice dog the worst place to start is a social run. Why? Because no one there will tell you about the first steps to take in your canicross learning journey and you find yourself and your dog surrounded by over excited dogs that bark, some lunge and snap, there's no warm up routine because you don't know there should be one and how important it is, someone slaps a harness that doesn't really fit on your dog - that's the first thing that your dog will be thinking about 'Aaaa, what is this thing doing on me?', then you start running and start telling your dog something to start - that's the second thing your dog won't understand and won't really have the opportunity to associate with the behaviour you want, 'Left!', 'Right!', you might have to shout 'Leave it!' because your dog suddenly starts to sniff - a displacement behaviour, something dogs do when they're confused, and you end up doing 5-7k. Like, OMG, your dog's mind is completely blown by the time you get back to the car, and your dog is simply mentally finished first and physically exhausted second. You get back home and your dog sleeps for the rest of the day or until the next day and most people think 'Mission accomplished!', the dog is tired and the house is saved from being chewed or whatever dogs do when they're bored, or you can get the opposite - an overtired dog that won't relax. And you keep going to social runs until at one point you decide you want to try a run just you and your dog and surprise-surprise your dog doesn't pull. Or you decide you want to try a race and your dog pulls for a bit at the beginning but looses interest quickly because there is no one on the course to follow.

Doing too much too soon and all of a sudden will only confuse your dog. Dogs are liable to other dogs' energy without knowing why the dogs at the social run are so excited and their energy level and arousal increase artificially bringing novice dogs over the arousal threshold. In this state dogs cannot learn. All they do is follow the group. They're not learning! And most of the times they burn out quickly and the more you show up at social runs the more the group, the harness, the setup becomes a trigger for over arousal. This is why it takes so long for dogs to learn at social runs.

This isn't the case with every dog but it is for most. I'm writing about this because I've had a few clients last summer who asked me to help them with their dog's training to be able to train and race with their dogs on their own. To get just a few people to help with this is huge considering I am not a popular dog trainer so most who actually need help wouldn't know to come to me for help. Anyway, if you read this and you know someone struggling, let them know I can help :) All those few were successful. It took the dogs a while to get over the previous associations with the harness, from the social runs, but they got there in the end. They understood the harness means pulling and that canicross is something they do with and for their handler and the other dogs (in a race, social run or otherwise) mean absolutely nothing. I mean, if you wanted to start mantrailing or protection or agility, you wouldn't just go to a social group to learn from, would you? NO, you would go to a club led by dog trainers, a trainer, an online class organised by a dog trainer, basically to someone involved in the dog sport you want to learn.

Zoe and her might

So canicross training should start in a familiar environment, without distractions, just you and your dog, under the guidance of a good dog trainer - online or in person. A good dog trainer will be able to explain the stages in canicross training, help you identify your dog's ultimate reinforcer so you can use in training and then fade it when the time is right. A good dog trainer will be able to design a training and conditioning plan for you and your dog and guide you to achieve your race goal, if you want to race. Once your dog understands what the harness means you can join all the social runs in the world and you'll see your dog more than happy to focus on the job with all the dogs around because your dog knows what it has to do and the group will provide just that extra motivation required to make canicross even more fun. It doesn't take long to train a dog to understand the canicross job, a few weeks at most, but it takes months to create new associations with the harness if you have started canicross at social runs.

Get in touch if you want to start training the right way ;)

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