Canine Culture

06/03/2026

Situational Awareness
What is your dog doing at the end of the leash? Are you paying attention? Competing with your dog requires moving your dog from point A to point B and points in between. And so are gobs of other handlers. In tight spaces. At the same time.
Preventing any behavior type of issue should be everyone's priority. Staring, lunging, barking, snapping, anxiety, worry, fear and the sort should be avoided.
✅️Be on your toes
✅️Be mindful of space
✅️Be present with your dog
✅️Be attuned to body language
✅️Be aware of surroundings

✌️Never let your dog negatively effect another dog or human.

What is going on at the end of the leash is more important than texting, talking to people, staring at the ring, looking at course maps, checking scores, getting your ribbon, going to the bathroom, etc. All off those things should be done without the dog dangling from your arm.
🙏Put your dog away to do all of those things. When your dog is out with you, they need and deserve 💯% of your undivided attention.
🤝If we could all agreeto pay greater attention to what's happening at the end of the leash, we would have far fewer incidents of dog issues at competitions.

06/02/2026

🎯𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐨𝐠 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩 - 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚, CO
Sunday June 21, 2026. 8-1130am
Outdoors, fully fenced on dirt at the Canine Culture arena.
6 Working Spots - $125
Should know jumps and tunnels. 8 months and up. We will break down age appropriate skills on a jumping course. I'll work with each individual team at where they are.
Instructor: Laura Bussing, CPDT, CCFT, CASPC
Registration form is in comments

05/30/2026

🔊Sound Sensitive Dogs
I've been recommending noise canceling earmuffs for my students with SS dogs for loud trial environments. I've received mostly positive feedback on the effectiveness of them. Two weeks ago, a major rainstorm came up when Whoopi was about 8 dogs from her run at a trial. There was thunder and extreme heavy downpour. It was ridiculously loud inside the building. That was the catalyst that caused me to purchase a pair of Rex Specs Ear Protection. Mainly, just for this type of thing. I've used them twice now and have been fully impressed with the calming effect on my dog.

05/28/2026

💥𝐅𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐬𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬
The next session of my super popular 8-week instructor-guided course begins on June 3rd on Clean Run. Small space friendly!

Bring out the best in your agility dog by revving up their speed and increasing their motivation! Whether you are struggling to make course time or missing out by just a couple of seconds, I will show you how to increase your dog's speed so you can achieve faster course times. This course will also explore the reasons behind a dog's loss of motivation or failure to develop motivation and provide techniques to ignite their passion for the game. It's also great for young dogs and fast dogs that are losing by a couple of seconds. Let's get you on top of the podium!

From a student: "My dog has made significant progress, and I can see how much faster and more confident she is now. Many classmates in my class even remarked, 'Did you bring a different dog?' and 'She's so fast now!' It's fantastic to see the transformation."
👇Sign up link in comments. Hurry to snag one of the working spots that are left!

05/27/2026

Every. Single. Weekend.
Every. Single. Day.
Dogs are attacked at a trial.
And the agility community has had enough. People: full-stop, if you are competing with a dog that can not remain under your control, that can't stop lunging, that can't stay with you at the end of your run, that run around the ring, that feel the need to bark and snap at any dog in its vicinity --- STAY HOME! Your dog is not ring ready and you are jeopardizing the physical and mental safety of ALL dogs. The community is saying loud and clear that they have had enough. My feed contains stories of dogs being attacked, snapped at, run over to and threatened every single week. I just don't get it why anyone wants to put their dog in a situation that they are so uncomfortable that the dog feels it is in a fight or flight situation. I will advocate for the overall safety of my dogs and your dogs, will you? Don't tolerate this behavior where you trial. If you see something, say something. Demand safe environments for our dogs. Advocate for it from classes, clubs, trial committees, judges, etc.

05/20/2026

👉Let's keep prioritizing canine Ring Readiness in the agility community. Episode #25 of the Agility Culture Podcast is right on point: "Ring Readiness - Why it's Important". Give it a listen and if you are inclined, please share it far and wide. The more we normalize dogs being completely ready to compete and able to engage with their handlers, we will create safer environments for all dogs, judges, handlers and workers.🎧Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Link in comments.

05/09/2026

A must read! Over-training and over-trialing are detrimental in agility dogs. Thank you Suzanne Wesley for drawing the parallel between horse and dog

04/18/2026

Happy, fulfilled dogs in everyday life, are great in sports. Running and hiking in nature are amazing for reducing overall stress and increasing your dog's overall well being. It's good for you too! Dogs are natural adventurers and immensely enjoy these type of activities.

04/17/2026

Agility has changed. Check out this new study, but don't let the cat photo fool you. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2026.1785106/full?fbclid=IwdGRzaARO-tBjbGNrBE76iGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHj7lorWuKCsxlNOp-rOofI9exQSWv6shraN9SIrKEaQ05JSv_8rXMsRpwH1x_aem_JEyRWIAbOjaOhZOhBCWiTw

Canine agility is a sport in which handlers direct dogs through pre-set obstacle courses. Over the past two decades, reported injuries among agility dogs hav...

02/18/2026

The final report will be out soon on the dog walk data analysis

Given the recent discussion surrounding the safety of the dogwalk obstacle, we would like to provide an update on the current status of our research efforts. Any incident is upsetting, and it’s exactly why we’ve been building objective data, so this conversation can move from anecdotes to evidence.

Update on our research:
From mid-April through early November, we collected prospective incident reports across participating agility organizations, totaling 1,000+ trials. To our knowledge, this is one of the largest coordinated, multi-organization datasets specifically tracking incidents on contact obstacles (dogwalk, A-frame, teeter).

Data cleaning and matching are nearly complete. We expect to share observed incident rates and descriptive statistics for all three contact obstacles within the next few weeks.

In addition to incident rate data, we are performing formal video analysis of dogwalk falls to identify common patterns and contributing factors. We also have a separate manuscript in final preparation on dogwalk footfall patterns and performance characteristics, which is a few weeks from submission.

Big decisions (widening, lowering, or removing the dogwalk) deserve transparent risk estimates and objective data. We appreciate the organizations, judges, and exhibitors who made this work possible.