Dogs and Basketball

Dogs, as domestic pets, have been labeled as “man’s best friend” for a reason, with one particularly familiar and well established doggy aspect known to one and all – their natural capacity to be trained to do tricks and accomplish certain tasks.

The 1997 family feature Air Bud illustrated one unique “trick” which a dog could be trained to do, telling the story of a stray dog and his inherent basketball playing skills.  Though the odds of actually finding a stray dog with the natural talent to play basketball can be pretty much summed up as really really low, the movie did show just how feasible training a dog to play basketball can be.

Generally, training a dog to play basketball is really no different from training a dog to do different tricks and tasks, requiring a lot of patience in the part of the trainer/owner in working on the “reward system” in imparting lessons.

Most experienced trainers who have had their share of training dogs to play basketball note that the steps involved in the training process is steeped with small steps, from finding or focusing on the ball, actually handling the ball, and pretty much leading to the dog acknowledging what to do with the ball, with each successful step being matched with a corresponding treat.

Some dogs smart enough and physically agile enough could even so a slam dunk with specialized for-dogs basketball hoops, along with doing certain tricks with basketballs as they are going about their “routines”.

Though its is physically impossible for dogs to readily play basketball in human standard basketball courts competitively, the concept of showcasing a basketball trained dog in terms of its novelty value is feasible, one which will surely bring a lot of interest towards a trained dog’s direction.

 Dogs and Basketball Video