Hobbies

When we got our first peruvian, we had already planned to take up some hobby. When Taru was very young, we realized that she learns new things very easily ja likes to do things with us. We tried some obedience training, but Taru's attention span wasn't long enough for that. Partly this could of course be attributed to the lack of skill on the owner part. Thankfully, during the summer of 2004, we got start agility-training in a group that was instructed by the owner of Taru's Ninja-sister. Quickly we realized that this is something that we want to do more. We had enrolled Taru at the Helsingin Agility Urheilijat -club, but their waiting list was pretty long. When Taru was a little over two years old, we got called into an "examination" to see if Taru would be able to attend the course. The examination was of course passed with flying colours and Taru has been developing in agility quickly. We know of three peruvians that have competed in unofficial competetions: Taru, Taru's brother Welho and Roli. Roli has advanced to class 2 already (class 1 being the first, class 3 being the "most advanced" in Finnish competitions). Welho started official competitions in 2006.

Based on our observations, a peruvian hunts based on smell and eye-sight. The hunting-instinct is extremely strong, so in the summer of 2004, we decided to try greyhound racing at Hyvinkää. On every Tueday evening, the greyhound track of Hyvinkää is open for all races and the first time we were there with the sibling-trio: Taru, Welho and Ninja. We tried lure-coursing, and all three dogs ran after the "rabbit" immediately! After the first attempt, Taru and Welho have continued the racing hobby and have competed in unofficial competitions. Taru has done extremely well in these competitions, even when competing with sighthounds! In the spring of 2005, she competed in a unofficial lure-coursing competition and finished in second place out of thirty dogs, including whippets! In the fall of 2005, Taru was the fastest out of one hundred dogs in an unofficial competition of 100 meters. Minttu has been to the track a few times as well and loves to run just like Taru. Even though Minttu seems faster than Taru, Taru is more agile and therefore is faster in the long run. In this hobby, our dogs can really fulfill their instincts. In the United States and some European countries, peruvian hairless dogs can compete officially in their own classes, we're hoping that someday this will be possible in Finland as well.

As stated before, the peruvian likes to hunt with it's sense of smell as well. This assumption was even more verified as Taru and her Welho-brother attended a tracking course. We attended the course and realized that tracking is also very suitable for peruvians. Escpecially Minttu is very good in tracking, as she has the patience to concentrate on the track better.

Of course, every dog should be taught the basics of obedience. A well-adjusted member of the surrounding society is a pride and joy to it's owner. We have attended different obedience courses with both of our dogs and generally consider them to be extremely important. Minttu, especially, is very obedient and patient which helps when teaching more advanced obedience.

Dog shows are propably the most common hobby, after lying on the couch. Because the number of peruvians isn't that high in Finland, gaining the Finnish beauty chamption title is relatively easy compared to larger (in quanity) breeds. The breed is not at its best in the ring due to its primitivity and reservations. The Finnish peruvian population is of extremely high quality, and something that should be an object of pride!

We can only talk about the hobbies as we have observed them in our own dogs, or the dogs of friends, as there isn't that much experience by anyone in doing hobbies with a peruvian hairless dog. This is a pity, as this is an energetic breed which can be easily motivated (when you find the correct motivational "tool"). It would be nice to see more peruvians doing different kinds of hobbies.