Learn Dog Parkour - From Zero to Hero

How dogs learn, marker, reinforcement, proofing (building layers of success) and safety

This lesson is teaching your dog to sit on cue.  It has been included to ensure that we cover off all the basics for everyone (starting from zero).  If your dog's sit is a bit hit and miss then I suggest reviewing this lesson as a re-cap to polish up your dog's behaviour.  If your dog already has a quick and reliable sit then you can skip this lesson

This lesson is teaching your dog to lie down on cue. It has been included to ensure that we cover off all the basics for everyone (starting from zero). If your dog's down is a bit hit and miss then I suggest reviewing this lesson as a re-cap to polish up your dog's behaviour. If your dog already has a quick and reliable down then you can skip this lesson.

The release cue ends your dog’s current behaviour and allows your dog to move and relax, effectively allowing ‘free time’.  This cue is very important in parkour as your dog needs to hold all  stationary parkour behaviours for a minimum of 3 seconds.  So, the release cue allows your dog to know when it can finish/end the behaviour rather than just guessing for itself.

Hand targeting is one of the most useful behaviours your dog can learn. The hand target is where your dog touches your hand with its nose. It is an excellent foundation skill that is valuable in teaching parkour manoeuvers as well as useful in everyday life

A foot target is where your dog places it's front feet onto a target mat. This is a fantastic skill to teach your dog and is the foundation to teaching 2 paws on, 4 paws on, pivots, directional control and help with parkour obstacle commitment

Your dog must be wearing a suitable harness with a lead attached to the back of the harness for all obstacles that are above ground level.  There are a huge variety of harness designs available, so it is important to know how to choose the ‘right’ fitting harness for your dog’s body shape.  Then we cover how to train your dog to love putting it's harness on.

Having your dog able to stand on command is very useful in everyday life as well as parkour.  Most behaviours in dog parkour require the dog to be standing, so teaching a stand cue can make parkour training easier.

This parkour behaviour requires that your dog puts it's two front feet on a stable parkour obstacle, while the back two feet remain on the ground.

Time to start thinking of what verbal cue you will use for your dog's parkour behaviours.  The list of all the behaviours you will learn in this course is below.

A fit trick is a "trick" type behaviour both that also has fitness benefits to the parkour dog.  This week is the play bow trick which provides a good stretch for the back and shoulder muscles as well as helping to maintain muscle tone in the rear legs.  In parkour, the play bow can also be used as a freestyle manoeuver.

Fun Focus are games that improve your dog’s focus on you rather than the distracting environment. They help to build your dog’s confidence and improve your dog’s desire to be with you. Each week from now on we will introduce a new Fun Focus game to help keep training fun and light-hearted.

The ‘4 paws on’ behaviour requires your dog to put all four feet on a parkour obstacle, and remain steady and focused for 3+ seconds.

The idea behind "spotting" your dog on parkour obstacles is to provide a safety net that reduces the likelihood of injury if your dog should slip, trip, fall or bail off the obstacle. It is not to guide or control your dog’s movements.

The ‘under’ interaction requires that your dog goes under the parkour obstacle, from one side of the obstacle to the other.

This exercise teaches your dog to lead with its rear limbs and use its rear limbs independently, which helps improve co-ordination and proprioception. Walking backwards is the foundation behaviour for teaching rear feet only on a parkour obstacle; for teaching a paw-stand; for teaching going up stairs backwards and even helps when teaching a dog to climb a ladder. It is an excellent exercise to work all of your dog’s muscles and gives your dog a good mental workout.

This week’s Fit Trick is to teach your dog rollover. It is a behaviour that requires good core strength, good body strength, co-ordination and body awareness – all important skills for parkour!

This week’s Fun Focus game is the impulse control game. It is a simple and fun game that can be played anywhere and anytime. Impulse control helps to promote safety during parkour.

Your dog stands on and walks along a parkour object.

Your dog places his two feet front feet on an elevated parkour obstacle and then side steps with the two back feet that are on the ground around the obstacle in a full circle.

The end behaviour is where the dog leaves his handler and goes around (wraps) a parkour obstacle, then returns to the handler.  This behaviour has been split into two training sessions.  Part 1 teaches the concept of moving around an obstacle, as it encourages your dog to think about their movement, rather than just blindly following a treat.

This interaction is an extension of the walking backwards behaviour that you have already taught your dog. Your dog backs onto a parkour obstacle, so that its rear feet are positioned on the obstacle.

This week’s Fit Trick is to have your dog turn around in a circle. This behaviour helps your dog to learn to think when excited. It is great for improving your dog’s flexibility, motor skills, co-ordination and body awareness – all important skills for parkour!

Week 4’s Fun Focus game is hide and seek. I love playing this game with my dogs and dogs love playing this game too. Hide and seek is a fantastic game for building a fast and reliable recall. Take this game everywhere to improve your dog’s focus on you and reliability in new environments.

Teaching your dog to turn while walking along a parkour object is a combination of the walk along behaviour and the circles that you have been training from last week’s lessons.

‘Through’ is where your dog moves through the gap between two parkour obstacles. This can also include going through man-made or natural tunnels.

There are two variations of the ‘get in’ interaction. One is where your dog gets all four feet inside an object that has four sides and an open top. The other variation is where your dog places his entire body into an open sided object.

Once your dog is confident at going around the object/cone with just one target in front of you, it is time to move onto the next stage. In this lesson, we are going to fade out the target and progress onto your dog moving away from you to wrap the object.

This week’s Fit Trick is to train your dog to move from a stand to a sit and then back to a stand. This behaviour improves your dog’s balance and encourages independent hind limb movement. It strengthens your dog’s trunk and abdonimal muscles and strengthens hips, butt and quad muscles.

Week 5’s Fun Focus game is figure 8 leg weaves. The figure 8 exercise is teaching your dog to weave in and out of your legs, while you stand still.

This behaviour requires your dog to place his front paws on one elevated object and rear paws on another elevated object

This interaction builds on the basic walking backwards behaviour that we started teaching in week 3. If your dog is unable to walk backwards, please go back and revisit the week 3 notes on training walking backwards. The reverse through behaviour requires your dog to walk backwards through a gap between two parkour objects.

The concept of this game is for your dog to build confidence interacting with new, novel objects and parkour obstacles. It is a great game for developing your dog’s motor skills, co-ordination and body awarenesss.

Your dog places it's two feet back feet on an elevated parkour obstacle and then side steps with the two front feet that are on the ground around the obstacle in a full circle.

Week 6’s Fit Trick is the 2-leg stand. This exercise improves muscle tone in the limbs and builds core strength. It also improves your dog’s balance.

This week’s Fun Focus game is called magic sides. It is a fun game that teaches your dog to easily swap from one side of you to the other side of you, making it a breeze to set your dog up for parkour obstacles.

Teaching 2 of the 4 different jump types - Assisted and Clean jumps.  An assisted jump is where your dog momentarily puts at least two feet on the parkour obstacle to assist the dog going over the obstacle. The clean jump consists of your dog jumping over (and clearing) a parkour obstacle.

The behaviour is building on the side-stepping behaviours that we have already taught. Now we are going to teach our dogs to side step with both the front and rear feet at the same time.

The rebound interaction requires the dog to leave his handler and bounce on and off a parkour obstacle, that is on an angle. The dog’s feet should only touch the obstacle surface once.

This week’s Fit Trick is teaching our dog to shake hands (or high-5). While this is a fun trick to show off to friends, it can also be used as a free-style parkour behaviour. On top of that, it alos has some great fitness benefits as well.

Our last Fun Focus game for this course is called Treasure Chests. Not only is it fun and a great enrichment activity, where they give their brains a workout hunting out their food, but it also teaches your dog to have resilience and grit.

Finding it hard to find things to use for parkour obstacles?  Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Building layers of success, progressing from learner to competent, parkour titles and Well Done!!