{"id":898,"date":"2020-10-16T14:03:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T14:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/?p=898"},"modified":"2020-10-19T17:04:52","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T17:04:52","slug":"best-in-tow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/2020\/10\/16\/best-in-tow\/","title":{"rendered":"Best in Tow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Vintage-dog-golf.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"412\" height=\"397\" title=\"Vintage dog golf\" style=\"display: inline; background-image: none;\" alt=\"Vintage dog golf\" src=\"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Vintage-dog-golf_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><i><font color=\"#008000\">Who\u2019s a good golf dog?<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#008000\">A common reaction we get to Grace on the golf course is, \u201c<i>I would love to take my own dog out on the course, but I know that he\/she just wouldn\u2019t behave<\/i>.\u201d After our <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/2020\/10\/13\/croham-hurst\/\"><font color=\"#008000\">last round<\/font><\/a><font color=\"#008000\">, as we noted, we went to go see our son\u2019s new pup, a retired greyhound named Bonbon. She was so calm and quiet, but obviously enjoys a bit of exercise, so we thought that she would make an exemplary golfing dog (and we hope to get her on the course some day). It made us a reflect on the question of \u201cwhat are the key qualities to being a \u2018good dog\u2019 on the golf course?\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#008000\">Many people ask about Grace\u2019s breed thinking since she is such a fine golf partner that others of her type will be the same. Temperaments vary hugely even among dogs of the same breed. And temperament is paramount for being on your best canine behaviour on the course.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#008000\">That said, Vizslas are great \u2013 clean (short-hair), intelligent, affectionate (they will often leave their food to get affection). Their biggest downside is that they require LOTS of exercise. A minimum of an hour off-lead running around and sniffing every day. It is their gluttony for particular desire which led us to dog golfing in the first place. The 7k+ walk just about starts to tire a Vizsla out.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#008000\">If you are looking for a dog that you might consider taking out on the fairways with you, consider these qualities:<\/font><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><font color=\"#008000\"><b><u>Volubility<\/u><\/b>: <i>Quiet Please!<\/i> Probably the most important aspect of good behaviour is quiet. Golf courses are second only to libraries for their sensitivity to auditory distraction. So dog barking is definitely bang out of order. A few good-natured woofs to great someone, for example, are fine. But a dog who does not control their barking will be as unwelcome as a chatterbox at the tee-off. Frustratingly, how vocal a particular dog is seems to be very intrinsic to their individual nature and is very hard to train (you can train a dog to bark on command, but much hard to get them to *not* bark on command).<\/font><\/li>\n<li><font color=\"#008000\"><b><u>Energy<\/u><\/b>: The more docile ambler is going to be easier than someone who likes to tear around (Grace definitely channels her inner Labrador in her more placid demeanour, but Rusty was a bit of a speed demon who liked to tear around). But a quite older or heavier dog, might not be up to managing an entire 18 holes.<\/font><\/li>\n<li><font color=\"#008000\"><b><u>Gregariousness<\/u><\/b>: Golf is a social sport and even outside your playing foursome, golfers are generally congenial and cross paths on the course as balls stray near (or even into) each other\u2019s fairway. A dog that is generally comfortable with strangers will be a much more content companion and also make such serendipitous encounters more enjoyable.<\/font><\/li>\n<li><font color=\"#008000\"><b><u>Biddability<\/u><\/b>: It\u2019s hard enough to get humans to behave according to the exacting protocol of the golf course, especially around minimising distractions with noise and eye line. Dogs need to follow all of these human rules. Even on a lead, the dog needs to be able to control all barking which would be a real course faux paw. And if you intend going around the \u201cunder control\u201d courses without lead, exacting biddability is an imperative.<\/font><\/li>\n<li><font color=\"#008000\"><b><u>Scent<\/u><\/b>: Of course, bonus fun for you and your pup is finding the ball in the rough. This will require (a) a good scent dog (like a Hunt\/Point\/Retrieve breed), and (b) extra training to find the scent and to point to it (don\u2019t pick it up!).<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font color=\"#008000\">You can see why Grace is the \u201cface\u201d of Dog Golf. But Rusty was just as central to our outings (when she was still with us) as she loved the outdoor adventure much more than Grace so she exemplifies the very spirit of dog golf.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who\u2019s a good golf dog? A common reaction we get to Grace on the golf course is, \u201cI would love to take my own dog out on the course, but I know that he\/she just wouldn\u2019t behave.\u201d After our last round, as we noted, we went to go see our son\u2019s new pup, a retired [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":903,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doggolf.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}