Pack Parkour Thursdays

Yooper Paws of Love hosts a Pack Parkour Party on the 1st & 3rd Thursday of the month!

Parkour is basically a mix between dog agility and nature where you practice stunts, tricks, and other obstacle course skills as a team in natural environments. In parkour, you teach your dog to perform “interactions” with objects in the environment such as jumping over, going under, going between, walking across, going around, backing between or onto, or sending around.

Parkour builds confidence and fosters teamwork by giving you and your dog an opportunity to explore and meet new challenges together as you perform the interactions with different objects in different locations. It also builds physical strength and flexibility while improving overall physical conditioning.

Safety First - Before doing Canine Parkour you need to have the right equipment! A harness with a back clip and a leash or longline allows you to support your dog if they need a bit of help. A dog should not be wearing any type of choke or prong collar doing Canine Parkour activities as these may cause harm if the dog falls or the leash gets caught. Even a flat collar can become stuck or get twisted and become dangerous.

What I like most about Canine Parkour is you don’t have to go out and buy any expensive equipment! You use what you have in your current surroundings. A chair, table or bench can be great to practice skills at home during the training phase. Logs, stumps and short rocks can be great obstacles that are easy to work with when you first move outside. Start on low objects that are easy for your dog to be successful and build your way up to more difficult behaviors and obstacles.

Common Parkour Stunts:

• Paws Up - 2 paws on any object
• On Top of the World - 4 paws on any object
• Go Around - circles an object
• Bum in the Air - back paws on any object
• Crawl Under the Bridge - crawls under any object
• Jump or Flying - dog jumps over any object without touching it
• Balance - dog walks on top of obstacle without touching the ground
• Through - dog walks through an obstacle such as a hoop

Pack Parkour

On the 1st & 3rd Thursday of the month, Yooper Paws of Love hosts a Pack Parkour Party where teams can practice on simple obstacles that I set up to learn the basics of parkour cues and skills to develop teamwork before heading out into nature to practice on real obstacles.

Pack Parkour takes place at Strawberry Lake on or near the ball fields with obstacles spaced out so each dog can practice in sight of other dogs, yet at a safe distance.  The obstacle course is open from 6-7pm for you to enjoy and work through at your own pace.  There is a mini fee of $10 to practice on the obstacles which helps to provide better obstacles for future Pack Parkour Parties.

Check out Team Betsy Ross as they work through several of the obstacles from a previous 

Pack Parkour Party!

And check out Cam doing some backyard Parkour as I test out some new obstacles!

If possible, pre-register with a simple email to yooperpaws@gmail.com to let me know you're coming!  Or comment at our FB Event page!