Dog Sports Competitors Check In

[altermetoday]

Hey there… if you compete your dogs in a sport…whether it be obedience, rally, agility, herding, field trials, or whatever… would love to know the area you are in… what the dog scene is like there…how far you drive for lessons and competitions, etc…

I’m considering moving in the next few years. I feel like in NoVa, there are a ton of dog sports to choose from within a couple hours… but this area is soooo expensive. I want to semi retire and have a job … maybe even part time that i can do and afford to live… and do things with my dog.

I’m looking to figure out what areas are good locations to be in… i’m primarily doing agility and rally… but have started some herding. I’m not set on continuing herding, but it is accessible and my dog loves it so i’m doing it for now.

would love to hear what the scene is like in your area… if you are more remote or have fewer options, how do you train and compete? how often? actually thats a good question for everyone… how often are you competing and traveling how far?

tia…

oh… and does your area have a good horse and dog community for you? I’m in VA now but do have family in southern CA so am not ruling out the west coast… FL might be out because of the long summers… I’m not a fan of humidity… and I’ve heard that agility in Florida only takes place for 6 mos of the year? anyway, open to anywhere right now.

[S1969]

I live in NY, close to the MA border. New England is a great area for dogs/dog sport competition as there is enough dogs/competitors to have a lot of options. Within 2-3 hours of me there are 4 breed clubs for my breed, which is probably the densest concentration of clubs in the country (in some areas there may be one breed club that covers multiple states). Similar concentration of all breed clubs as well.

I live 90 minutes from the Big E (Eastern States Exposition Center) where there are conformation, obedience, rally and agility competitions very often.

For training my friends and I tend to be able to get top quality training for just about any dog sport within an hour drive, give or take depending on which sport. (e.g. competitive obedience instructor 30 minutes; competitive versatile hunting dog club about 75 minute).

As far as horse community…not really sure. I have my own farm but I don’t show…maybe others can chime in about the horse scene in New England.

[clarzoo]

I’m from N Central Florida. I am involved in Agility mainly, but also Obedience/Rally, Scent Work, Barn Hunt and Lure Coursing (CAT not hound coursing). I can have my pick of multiple shows to attend pretty much every weekend from October to May. I tend to stick within an hour drive of me and show once to twice a month max, but if I expanded to a three hour drive I would have several to choose from every weekend. There are obedience and rally throughout the year and some clubs do have indoor agility but that seems to be fairly rare in my area. Most are outdoor on grass or in open but covered horse arenas. Down here AKC, CPE, USDAA are most common. I am new and have stuck with AKC so far.

The summers are hot and I back off of training outside during July and August. I am in the Ocala area so horse shows are plentiful and basically year round with the high season being January- May.

[Donkaloosa]

I am in St. Louis, and we have several excellent show facilities here including the Purina Event Center. I never drove more than an hour to show. Lots of obedience and rally and agility, and several different trainers/facilities. Herding is also big here, and dock diving.

I am out of the horse show scene, but we do have some good show facilities, show barns and big shows here. If you hunt, there is Bridlespur. Nice trails at Cuivre River and Greensfelder.

Cost of living here is good, but humidity, well, yes… We do have 4 seasons, but they sometimes get confused.

[DarkenStormy]

I am in Atlanta GA and we have all sorts of dog sports here. We have Barn Hunt, Agility, Rally, Nosework, herding and Dock Diving. I live in Marietta( North of Atlanta) and I drive about 30 minutes to my training facility where I take Dock Diving and Agility( but my facility trains in all the sports except herding). Dock Diving competitions here run from April-Sept and Agility competitions will run year round but be more sparse in the summer because we only have one air conditioned facility in the area which is south of the city about 2 hours( Perry GA). I will sometimes drive down there and show for the day and drive home, sometimes I will go down and spend the night - depends on what I feel like doing.

I will travel to TN, AL, NC and SC to show - I usually will not drive more than 3.5 hours to a venue( esp if it’s AKC - not enough runs to make it worth my while) with the exception of Jax in December - it’s about 5ish hours and I just like the facility a whole lot and we go down as a group. We have plenty of shows here to keep us busy Sept-Dec and Jan-May. In fact we can show every weekend in Sept ( AKC and USDAA). We also have NADAC and UKI.

We have some great herding people around here - the Baileys( if you know of them) live just north of Atlanta.

And of course being Atlanta there is a great horse show scene in Conyers with the Atlanta Classic Series and several shows at Wills Park in Alpharetta( although not quite as big as the ones in Conyers) Plenty of horse shows.

Cost of living here is not bad depending on where you want to live. Cobb County where I live has pretty low taxes and if you are retired you can live north of the city and get some good land for a lower price. The traffic is a bear but you can pick and choose your time to travel if you don’t have to commute. Also it does get hot and humid here, but if you live a little further north towards the mountains it can be tolerable. It’s not as bad as FL where I used to live - we are only bad June- Aug.

[Marshfield]

I am in Maine, an hour north of Portsmouth. It is the very rare weekend where there isn’t an agility trial within about two hours of home. Further for Rally, but could like compete in Rally/Obedience two weekends a month if desired. Herding is available, just not my game

[Bicoastal]

I’m in NoVA. I could trial every weekend in the sports you mentioned and drive less than two hours to do so. Historically very horsey area and there is still a strong eq community on the fringes like Leesburg and Middleburg.

But it’s congested so housing costs are high and traffic is insane… I’m actually looking to move out of this area because of the crowding.

[AltersAreUs]

I’m in the Boston area of New England and you can trial every weekend up here if that’s your thing. CPE, AKC, UKC, whatever your preferred organization, there’s plenty to do (although UKC is less popular than the other two). Like S1969 said, the Big E fairgrounds has shows regularly and there are a couple of gyms that hold something almost every other week or so. Decent training is available & affordable. I have four large gyms and at least half a dozen smaller gyms focusing on obedience & rally within an hour of me, all with decent instructors.

The downside is the horse scene. While the equestrian community is strong, the costs for keeping horses are sky high. Bare bones pasture board is going to run you upwards of $400 a month. Board within an hour of Boston w/ an indoor is $800+, more the closer you get to the city. And that’s non-traffic travel times. Your 30 minute commute to the barn will become a 80 minute commute if you’re trying to get there between the hours of 3 and 6 in the evening. If you’re looking to buy your own place, expect to pay out the nose on property taxes. There isn’t much farm land left, so most places have to ship in hay from Canada or elsewhere.

[bdj]

MidAtlantic checking in - I’m on the Eastern Shore of MD, which is a little remote, but within pretty easy striking distance of a ton of dog events. I’m AKC all the time and mostly do agility, but play around with rally and lure coursing, and make (very) brief sojourns into herding, obedience and barn hunt occasionally. I’ve got several AKC clubs within about an hour (without having to cross the Bay Bridge) all of which offer agility, rally and obedience trials regularly, and another local club that’s strictly agility. There’s also a local barn hunt site that runs a couple of trials a year.

Head about an hour north of me (into the MD/DE/PA corner), though, and you’re within easy striking distance of a ton of agility trials, and plenty of rally and obedience folks, too. Birdsboro, PA has herding trials and I think I know a tracking instructor up that way as well. There seems to be plenty of CPE agility in that area (got a friend who’s big into CPE and that’s the direction she generally travels in). I don’t play in the other venues, so I can’t speak to them. I do have friends who trial AKC and run almost every weekend, and at least one of them doesn’t ever stay in hotels - but she’s willing to drive 2+ hours from home. For AKC agility, Bad Dog Agility did this cool interactive map a few years ago that’s pretty awesome: http://baddogagility.com/interactive-maps-for-all-akc-agility-trials-in-2014/ I wish they’d re-do it, but in this general area at least, I don’t think you’d see much of a change.

Horse-wise - I think the area is pretty well known… Fair Hill, Devon, Dream Park, lots of racing (flat, steeplechase and harness) and that doesn’t even really skim the surface…

[Bicoastal]

@bdj

Bad Dog Agility did this cool interactive map a few years ago that’s pretty awesome: http://baddogagility.com/interactive-maps-for-all-akc-agility-trials-in-2014/

Thanks for sharing, that’s neat! I’d move back to the Eastern Shore if I could find employment (communications/publications). I think of it as rural and only have first-hand knowledge of Salisbury Kennel Club. I didn’t realize there was quite so much going on. That’s great!

[bdj]

@Bicoastal

Thanks for sharing, that’s neat! I’d move back to the Eastern Shore if I could find employment (communications/publications). I think of it as rural and only have first-hand knowledge of Salisbury Kennel Club. I didn’t realize there was quite so much going on. That’s great!

Well, parts still are pretty rural (I live on a dirt road, and don’t have internet at home, but I’m probably in the minority in that respect anymore), but if you’re willing to drive a bit, there’s plenty of dog stuff to do - I think we’re online to have 30 days of AKC agility this year just on the Shore - spread out over 4 clubs and 3 sites! Who needs internet access when you have trials to go to and mowing to keep up on?

[altermetoday]

@Bicoastal

Thanks for sharing, that’s neat! I’d move back to the Eastern Shore if I could find employment (communications/publications). I think of it as rural and only have first-hand knowledge of Salisbury Kennel Club. I didn’t realize there was quite so much going on. That’s great!

Bicoastal - where would you move to? the responses here are great!

[Hannahsmom]

I’m kind of at the same spot except I don’t need horsey resources. I compete a lot in agility as well as obedience, barn hunt, earthdog, rally. And there are new sports like AKC Nosework as well as things I’d still like to try like tracking. I have gotten pretty spoiled in that I can compete year round in the Midwest indoors on good turf with heat in the winter and AC in the summer with trials at the very most two hours away, most are closer. For retirement I’m considering the Nashville TN area. I think the taxes will be better which us the main reason for moving. I hear the dog scene there is very active. I plan to do some RV travel first to investigate.