Do You Know Dogs Can Dance?
Oct 07, 2025
Do you like to dance? For years I considered myself a klutz – too clumsy for sports or dating or dancing because I was physically inept. And then I discovered something – dancing was fun and not too hard to be good at. Suddenly I didn’t feel like a klutz anymore. Have you ever had something like that happen in your life?
Fast-forward to falling in love with dog sports – AKC conformation, obedience, rally, agility – as many sports as I had time to try and my dogs liked to play, we did. And then one day it happened…
…I saw a video of someone dancing with their dog, and I was hooked!
Before you start thinking about asking dogs to use their bodies in unnatural ways, this isn’t ballroom dancing with a furry partner. This is taking a string of skills and tricks and setting them to music. This is called canine musical freestyle, and while some people play at a very high level, most of us are just having fun with our dogs and maybe earning a title if all goes well.
Have you ever thought about dancing with your dog? Basically, if you like to teach your dog tricks and you have a little bit of imagination and rhythm, you can do canine musical freestyle. Google “dancing with a dog” or “canine musical freestyle dancing” for videos of amazing performances.
There are a couple of organizations you can check out to see videos, read about how the events work, and get inspired to dance with your dog. They are the World Canine Freestyle Organization and the Canine Freestyle Federation. If there’s a club or guild near you, check them out, and if you get a chance to go to a live titling event, go. The creativity is wonderful and the people and dogs are, too.
You probably won’t ever see me with a dog performing at Crufts – that’s for the really serious competitors and amazing trainers. If you see me in a park, dancing to music only I can hear and directing my dog through a string of tricks and behaviors she loves, you’ll know – that’s just Sandy, dancing with her dog again!
