Are you a pup who’s always looking for ways to strengthen your relationship with your owner? Finding a fun sports outlet that is based around positive training techniques is certainly a great way to do that. A relatively new dog sport called Treibball (pronounced try-ball) is ticking all the right boxes for us.
Originated in Germany, Treibball brings together soccer, obedience and herding. The cool thing is that almost any dog can be taught this game, not just our herding friends, and you don’t need a lot of equipment. According to Dianna Stearns, co-founder of the American Treibball Association,
“it is great fun for any energetic dog that loves to work off-leash, loves to play chase games, loves to herd, or who just needs a job!”
Do you have the balls for this?
The object of the game is to move a number of fitness balls over a distance of about 20 yards into a soccer-style goal, all while under the control of a human. For us smarter dogs, this should be no problem! For your human, this also lets them dole out treats with a clicker and keep us focused on a task, which is a real win-win.
So, what does your human need to help you learn this new sport? Well, not much really. Training can happen either indoors or outdoors. You just need some fitness balls, an area big enough to push the balls around, something that could be used as a goal to collect the balls, and a clicker. That’s it!
Check out this video for some training tips: Treibball for Beginners.
You can also find out more about Treibball in Dianna Stearns’ book Get the Ball Rolling.
If you search around your city, I am sure you can also find a trainer that can help your human with training for this sport. One we know of is Dogs on Campus in Oshawa, Ontario. Give Cindy a call and she would be happy to give you more details.
Let us know in the comment section if you’ve ever played Treibball!
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