Competitive dog sports — agility, obedience, herding trials, and sled racing — can provide enrichment or cause harm depending on training methods, management, and physical demands.
Dog sport welfare is a spectrum: competitive agility using positive reinforcement provides mental and physical enrichment that many dogs actively seek. Aversive training for competition obedience causes stress and suppresses normal behavior. Sled dog racing at extreme distances and temperatures creates conditions that cause cold injury, gastrointestinal disease, and exertional myopathy in a proportion of participants. The mode of training is the single most important welfare variable in most dog sports.