Dog sports including agility, flyball, and dock diving provide enrichment but carry injury risks. Responsible participation requires attention to training practices, physical conditioning, and injury prevention.
Dog sports at their best represent genuine partnership, shared joy, and mental and physical enrichment for both dog and handler. At their worst, they involve overtraining, age-inappropriate demands, suppressed pain signals, and competitive pressure that overrides the dog's welfare. The welfare-conscious approach to dog sports begins with conditioning appropriate to the individual dog's age, structure, and fitness, continues with attention to signs of fatigue and discomfort during training, and includes regular physical therapy assessments to detect emerging injuries before they become severe. The standard of "the dog is still running so they must be fine" is not adequate welfare assessment.