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Do you live with a 14-month-old Pointer cross who thinks that the height of amusement is a daily Ironman marathon? Or a Border Collie who spends all day figuring out the complexities of the supposedly dog-proof garbage can? Maybe your pooch is the kind of dog who prefers to spend every day lying in bed under the covers. Different dogs have different needs for stimulation, dependent upon their breed types, ages, intellectual interests, and health. Choosing activities carefully for an individual dog can help him or her to be a balanced member of the family. more

Denyse Schmidt of Denise Schmidt Quilts saw her first Scottie Dog at the Elephant’s Trunk flea market in New Milford, Connecticut many years ago and fell in love. She’s been collecting vintage patchwork Scottie Dogs (and photographing them when her bed got too full) ever since. Just like old patchwork quilts, no two Scottie Dogs are alike—but they all have personality. We’re not sure where the pattern originated, but, due to the proliferation of patchwork Scotties out there, it probably appeared in a very popular women’s magazine in the 1940’s. And now, you can make your own! more

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One taste of the wild, competitive sport of flyball and you’re hooked. Dogs utterly fascinated with balls race off-leash over a 51-foot course, along the way hurdling four jumps that are 10 feet apart. The size of the shortest dog on the team determines the jump height for that entire team. At the end of the course, the dog uses his or her feet to hit “the box”—a device that fires a tennis ball—then catches the ball and flies back over the jumps to the finish line. As the first runner crosses the line, the second dog in the four-dog team takes off. To make it even more exciting, these dogs are racing alongside another team of ball-hungry athletic canines. more

As with so many ground-breaking ideas, necessity proved the mother of invention. As a new mom, Ottosson suddenly found herself with less time to interact meaningfully with her dogs. She knew that consistently challenging her dogs was integral to their development, not to mention her relationship with them, so she created Ottosson's Zoo Active Products, a line of games that ask your dog to combine wits, motor skills, and memory to get a treat. Forget mindless chewing and squeaking‚ these are toys that require your dog to think.

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Owners bring their dogs here to test the dogs' instinctual behaviour on scent trails and in underground tunnels leading to quarry. They want to see if little Angus and Heidi can still do what their doggie ancestors were bred to do as early as 55 B.C.: go to ground and get rid of fox, badger, river otters, and other vermin that were wreaking havoc on their owners' land. Dogs that do well here can go on to participate in Earthdog Tests, Canadian Kennel Club (CKC)-sanctioned, non-competitive events leading to the titles Junior Earthdog, Senior Earthdog, and Master Earthdog. British Columbia held the first Canadian Earthdog Tests in 2002 and the Sea to Sky Earthdog Club now sponsors two sets of testing events each year. more