Dog parkour - it's a thing

So I'm looking at the requirements for the training level title in dog parkour and we already do a lot of this stuff... just need to shape it a little.

Anybody else look into or participate in this activity at all? Looks like a whole lot of fun to me!

International Dog Parkour Association

 

I was thinking of doing this with Rhaegar, I just haven't gotten started yet. These are types of behaviors he likes to offer already, so it seems like good fun.

 

Exactly! After I posted this I decided to see what it would take to have Yogi doing the training level title and we managed to make videos for all but the creative and under requirements. I'm going to try to do those at the training center tomorrow and send the videos in for his training title.

 

I'd love to, but not with Hector. He's gimp enough.

 

Yeah, Yogi can't do agility or anything because he's got an old soft tissue injury in his leg that never healed right. I figured with this, I can dictate height and activity level and such and there's a lot of low impact activities with it.

Also, because you send in your videos of each required activity, you can space them out over time and go at your and your dog's pace. I'm excited for this, too because it's a sport that works really well with clicker training and we love us some clicker training!

 

I had never heard of it until I saw a video on it today when looking through the $10.00 classes on that site I posted about. When I saw this post!Training dog parkour (TreT-Style). Step by step lessons!

 

Omg I can't believe it's a course that features TreT. He's one of the best out there and notice he's pretty chubby.

 

I am obsessed with him now!

 

He should actually put in the requirements that you need a dog with high drive with strong bones and good structure. Otherwise fail and injured dog.

 

My dogs do parkour all the time! It usually involves jumping down from the sofa, running over and jumping up onto the bed LOL. Deff low impact. They always have a soft landing!

 

Yeah, hopefully most people who do sports know their dog's limitations and also know to start slow when it's new and build from there. We are going from winter couch potato to parkour, so VERY slow and low.

The training title requirements are really very basic, not any big jumps up or down at all, no running, nothing like that. It's basically your dog following your commands or targeting to put 2 feet on an object for 5 seconds, getting in an object like a box or something for 5 seconds, all 4 feet on an object for 5 seconds so like getting up on a chair or a bench, going under something less than head height and then in between 2 objects. Nothing high impact whatsoever.

I'll have to check out that video!

Here's a couple of our videos from yesterday:

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube

I'll have to check out that video, karennj!

 

O.k. I underestimated how long it would take to get all the videos together and of the appropriate length and meeting all the (I hope) requirements for each behavior - but we did it!

Sent our submission about an hour ago and hope to hear back in a couple weeks. I'm kind of on pins and needles, but I love the format of the video submission for titles, no pressure to perform, no one watching, not competing against anyone else. Just us doing our thing.

I think the hardest part was making sure the video quality was o.k. and actually captures what we are doing, then editing on youtube. I watch some other video submissions and people have MUCH higher quality videos than I do. I think I'm going to need something better than my phone to continue with this.

 

Hear anything back yet? We worked on some parkour stuff at the park this morning, although after combing through the rules again, I think most of my video won't qualify. I do some luring, and I also have his leash attached to the front of his harness and not the back. He was also super distracted because the park was extra crowded with other dogs today and they kept popping up out of nowhere. I need to work on coming up with more creative obstacles, lol. [video=youtube;zaBnnYKOq70]https://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=zaBnnYKOq70[/video]

 

Those were awesome! I think you'll be ok, maybe with the exception of the hay bail because of the leash, but you spotted really well! I was a bit concerned about my submission and emailed them, they responded right away and also indicated that they are fairly lenient in the rules with the training titles. There's a facebook page with lots of videos and q & a from others. It's been really helpful!

 

This is all we got lol. [video=youtube;fnedRMa0V5I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnedRMa0V5I[/video]

 

I wanted to submit for Rhaegar's novice today, but then realized that I reused two obstacles in his three obstacle sequence. Whoops! [video=youtube;AsaavyUSvXk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsaavyUSvXk&edit=vd[/video]

 

I love Hector and Rhaegar! I'm so jealous right now - we haven't been outside for more than a 15-20 minute walk for well over a week! It's finally made it to 20 degrees today. Seriously, I cannot WAIT to get back outside with these guys!

 

Today we went to the same bench and did some more. Introduced a walk, learning step up, and unsure if we can get a step down (too awkward for him). It was actually fun lol. Rhaegar has inspired us to do more and try harder. I think we can work through the stress and miscommunication lol.

 

Yes! Rhaegar is proof that awkward, anxious (and relatively unenthused, lol) dogs can do it too! Looking forward to seeing how it goes with Hec. Rhaegar and I might be able to make it through the Intermediate, but we'll probably have to leave the higher titles to those silly, agile herding breeds, lol.

 

Oh yeah - there will be no bouncing off trees here lol.