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Walking your dog and participating in dog sports is healthy for you and your pet. A bonus is meeting and spending time with people who enjoy the same doggy activities that you do.
People are more likely to meet their weekly minimum exercise requirements when they walk their dogs. Involvement in AKC performance sports with your dog benefits both of you. These include improving heart health, easing stress, adding confidence, and boosting mental well-being.
Benefits of Group Activities for Seniors
It can be hard to find ways to connect with people who share common interests and community, especially when you’re 65 or older. It’s not just socially beneficial to be part of a group, but can also be helpful for your long-term health. Loneliness in seniors can be detrimental, so it’s important to stay active with others. Plus, everything’s more fun with like-minded people!
It can also benefit your health to maintain friendships. A study at the University College London found that people in their 50s and 60s were less likely to develop dementia when they saw friends once a day. Health benefits like these are part of the reason that it’s important to maintain relationships throughout all stages of life.
Group Activities — With Your Dog
There’s nothing better than spending time with your dog. It’s a bonding experience between you, and also has positive benefits for your health. Plus, it’s good for your dog! Whether you’re exercising with your dog or just spending time with them, it’s good for your mental health and fitness as well as your dog’s.
So why not get the best of both worlds? Enrolling in group activities with your dog, like dog sports or dog clubs, can help you connect with others, exercise your dog, and more.
Physical and Mental Benefits of Dog Groups
Joining an AKC all-breed, national breed, local breed club, or performance group offers many physical and mental health benefits. Group membership allows you to spend time with friends who share your affinity for your breed and helps you build a social network. Many studies show that social networks improve physical and mental health. Connecting with people in a dog club leads to a longer life span, reduced cardiovascular disease and cancer incidence, and enhanced immune function.
Research shows that building strong social ties in a group expands your social ties, which is vital to brain health. For example, numerous studies show that volunteering can help reduce levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and the risk of cognitive impairment.
Belonging to an AKC dog club and working with others to help dogs can give you a sense of belonging and security. The membership elevates your self-esteem, which can enable you to handle anxiety and stress more easily. It makes it easier to call or email a dog friend you’ve met in an AKC group to talk. When you need a little help from a dog friend, the network helps to support you.
Support for Dog Athletics
Grouper supports your dues and other activity expenses as health insurance companies realize that participating in organized events benefits your health. If you qualify by age and with an appropriate insurance plan, Grouper can reward you for being part of a dog club by offering you a $50 check and another $20 per quarter of reported activity if your current health plan is eligible. To find out if you qualify, visit the site and answer some questions about your coverage. Then, stay active with your dogs and reap all the benefits.
AKC offers conformation events for and many canine companion performance events for all dogs at different competitive levels. Consider joining these:
AKC FIT DOG
If you and your dog are in good shape and walk with your dog regularly, this program is for you. People walking dogs encounter other dog owners on walks. Choose to participate alone or join a regularly scheduled canine fitness or conditioning class that offers AKC FIT DOG. Offering four AKC titles, the beginning level involves walking at least 30 minutes five times a week for at least 150 minutes per week for at least three months.
Obedience
Obedience is a practical dog sport that has rules and regulations and requires training and conditioning. While accuracy and precision are essential, the dog’s willingness to follow basic skills such as sit, stay, down, and heeling on and off the leash is also important.
AKC Rally
In this event, you and your dog compete as a team. You steer your dog through a course of 10 to 20 signs. These provide instructions on a skill your dog needs to perform. AKC Rally is a timed routine, although your dog’s talents and the teamwork count.
AKC Fetch
One of the most common activities people like is playing ball or Fetch. While Fetch provides physical and mental exercise, dogs and their handlers have fun. The four levels of titles in AKC Fetch assess the dog’s ability to retrieve. Dogs who aren’t natural retrievers learn a new skill, and owners learn how to teach their dogs to fetch.
AKC Scent Work
Like military or police K-9s, this sport teaches dogs to recognize a scent and communicate their find to their owners. Many dog clubs offer AKC Scent Work, or you can train a dog to use its nose in the comfort of your home.
Barn Hunt
Hunting skills and teamwork with your dog are the foundation of Barn Hunt. Dogs and handlers locate and mark rats in a safe straw or hay bale area. While some breeds are natural rat catchers, others need some guidance.
AKC Lure Coursing
Blink, and you’ll miss a Sighthound (dogs that pursue game by sight rather than by scent) catching the plastic bag attached to a lure. This lure mimics a rabbit on the run. With athleticism and keen eyesight to keep the rabbit, or lure, in sight, dogs demonstrate their ability to pursue it. While many Sighthounds possess a natural ability to chase prey, others may require some practice sessions to earn competitive titles in AKC Lure Coursing.
Coursing Ability Test (CAT) or AKC Fast CAT
In CAT and AKC Fast CAT, any breed or All-American dog may run alone on a course to chase a lure.
AKC Therapy Dog
AKC Therapy Dog is a program which recognizes the work of therapy dog and handler teams. These teams work through accepted organizations to bring joy, comfort, and calm to people who can use a furry hug. Owners and their dogs schedule visits with patients in facilities such as classrooms, libraries, assisted living centers, hospitals, shelters, and courtrooms.
Sharing fun, new experiences with your dog and other dog owners has invaluable health benefits.
About Grouper
Grouper partners with health plans that offer their members activity benefits, and we help members connect to social activities that match their passions. Grouper believes, and research has found, that joining and participating in clubs, associations and social groups has a positive impact on health. Stay active, stay connected and keep us updated on your social activity – we do the rest. For more information about Grouper, visit www.hellogrouper.com
