Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - FF250: Parkour

Course Details

Parkour, also known as “urban agility” is a great sport to boost confidence, build strength and strengthen your relationship. Parkour is a challenging, but fun activity to do with your dog. It includes, jumping, climbing, and balancing. All dogs can participate in some form of Parkour. Once you start Parkour, you will look at the world completely different. You will always be on the lookout for places to play with your dog.

It is fun to look at the environment and find all the new ways to participate in Parkour. You can use trees, benches, walls, logs, playground equipment, picnic tables, boat docks, stairs, the list is only limited by your imagination. Inside can include laundry baskets, exercise balls, scaffolding, carts, stairs and boards. Parkour should be done in a safe manner, evaluating all obstacles and surfaces before ever asking your dog to interact.

The sky truly is the limit when it comes to Parkour!

This class will provide video instruction on how to teach the different obstacles under International Dog Parkour rules. Videos will include the founders and students of IDPKA, including my 2 dogs, members of the Dog Parkour training page, and videos from the IDPKA workshops. You can visit the website at http://www.dogparkour.org/

Here is a video from our very first Parkour Class:

Syllabus

View Full Syllabus

This course will cover Training, Novice and Intermediate Obstacles

Safety

Spotting

Respect Your Dog

Warm Up

Conditioning

Playing with the less confident dog

Find the obstacle (through photo submittals)

4 feet on

2 feet on

Under

Through

Balance

Creativity

Moving Obstacle

Over

Around

Wait on Obstacle

Back Up

Multiple Obstacle Sequence

Creativity

2 feet on –pivot

Stimulus Control

Send

Tic Tacs

Back Up onto obstacle

Gap Jump

Prerequisites and Equipment

Wobble cushions or couch cushion

Cones for “weaving” (or can weave between legs) and for teaching/working around

Concrete blocks, stools, board for under

Boxes or containers of decreasing size/increasing height based on size of your dog

Boards and blocks for balance training (widths..

Platform that can slowly be increased or difference heights of objects to slowly work backup onto shoulder height object

Pivot bowl or object, decreasing sizes that will become 4 feet on “balance
Agility or obedience jump or something similar

Tic tac board -30 x 36 (5/8” plyboard) with matting (example: http://www.lowes.com/pd/Blue-Hawk-Gray-Anti-Fatigue-Mat-Common-3-ft-x-5-ft-Actual-36-in-x-60-in/3595540)

Platforms (or can use tic tac board on blocks) Check Goodwill, thrift stores, Play it again sports. Platforms are used for teaching a lot of the obstacles. Portable platform to take to new places and work in the environment.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007OWSXG?ref_=ams_ad_dp_asin_1

http://www.blue-9.com/

Small stools

Backclip Harness – Active Wear Hurtta, Freedeom Harness, Ruffwear Webmaster, Original Fleece Lined Harness, Easy Sport Harness

4-6’ leads

Long line for send objects

Video camera for gold spots or capturing video if you would like to submit to IDPKA for titles

http://www.dogparkour.org/dog-parkour-titles

Course Testimonials

Testimonials from the April 2016 Class

I loved taking this class you were so positive with your feedback I can’t wait till fall to take another level

Melissa does a great job of engaging the class as well as starting and keeping chat/topics going within the forum. This results in active participation and excitement throughout the course.

Absolutely! Loved how much she cared about us and our journey. Her caring attitude really made the class wonderful!

Melissa was GREAT! This was THE BEST class I've taken!

The Parkour class was absolutely lovely. Melissa was just as excited as the students about Parkour and really cared about everyone's journey. Oliver, my Beagle, and I had a blast. We can't wait to take more FDSA Parkour classes in the future! Stephanie P.

Wonderful class! Thank you for everything. It was fun!

Melissa, I really enjoyed your teaching style. All the questions were answered thoughtfully with clear and concise information. Your classroom had a very positive and fun atmosphere!! Thank you!!

Another super job! (I've taken nosework from you too.) Thank you for breaking new ground to bring us this class! I really hope to make it in Gold in the class in the fall.

I took Parkour class at Bronze rather on a whim, wondering if it might help one of my dogs with confidence for physical obstacles in his tracking work. What I got was much more....physical exercise, improved relationship, teamwork and trust with both my dogs, and more connection on our walks. Melissa does a great job of introducing the exercises and has LOTS of video examples. I'll definitely be hoping for a Gold spot in a future Parkour class. KylaS

This was my first official gold course and loved it, positive feedback and wonderful insight to help me improve, I can’t wait for another level of parkour with Melissa

Very well structured lectures with detailed instruction on how to start and progress with each exercise in a safe and successful way. Awesome instructor! I took the class at Bronze and felt like Gold!!! Thank you Melissa!

Great six weeks !! Wonderful way to introduce new skills in a relaxed and safe manner. Details of each exercise in the videos assured success!!! A must-do for teams interested in having fun in a non-stressful environment and building confidence! Ana C.

Loved the class. It has inspired me to expand my parkour training and my creative eye for the environment

The class materials were super thorough and covered several levels. They will be very useful when I need to go back to review skills for future submissions for titles.

Melissa cared about the success of her students, she supplied special videos to help her students to see something clearer and checked to be sure we understood what she was saying.

Absolutely loved this class!! It was set up well, Melissa is a wonderful instructor! Great material! I can't say enough good things about it

The Parkour class was a great experience & so much fun! My dog gained a lot of confidence. We could work at our own pace, there was a lot of great information presented and shared with students. I highly recommend this course! Sally P.