Doggy parkour – Urban agility challenge for dogs

Furkids living in urban cities do not have the luxury of their own backyard to romp around in. Nope, they have to fit themselves into the tinier by the day public housing flats or condominium apartments that their friendbeasts bring them home to. We are kind of lucky to have gotten a flat in a development that comes with a small fairly enclosed rooftop garden above the multi-storey carpark. This is where we train our sit and stay and put to use the public installations into an urban obstacle course for Donna.

We never take our hands off Donna’s leash anywhere else but here. This is an area that is fairly secluded, almost zero traffic so we can be sure that nothing happens to spook our dog and lead to a flight and lost dog incident. Donna would not have been able to get any good at sit and stay outside of home if we didn’t have this convenient place downstairs to train between 1 to 2 sessions a day. But if anyone were to ask me, I would say never ever take your hand of the dog’s leash. A risk is still a risk no matter how small but I digress.

So anyway, coming away from the digression of what a bad friendbeast I am, Donna really hasn’t caught on to the concept of sit and stay on urban obstacles yet. What she does downstairs is really just motion that she goes through everyday that she has internalised very well. Take her out of that setting and you’ll find the human on the obstacle, not the dog! :P

Still we try now and then when the mood strikes. Sometimes it makes for a good photograph, like the day the dog put her little paws politely on the root of a big tree.

For a lark, we tried a little doggy parkour on some huge landscape rocks in the park, nothing as incredible as TreT wahahaha!

When you have one hand on the leash and in the other hand your camera phone, the only orientation that you can ever easily take is from above down. Luckily for me the “exertion” of clambering up some fake landscape rocks was too much for Donna, especially since we have already been out for an hour already. She had to lie down and rest. “Stay” is pretty handy with a tired dog. Ho ho ho~

What we see from above, is different from what she sees from below.

Say hello to Donna and her photoshop clone Donna-02. Ho ho ho~

Urban Agility is a method of exercising your dog using public structural components and park furniture. Training with your dog to sit, trot along or jump over obstacles found in the urban environment helps with improving the dog’s agility and providing positive mental stimulation for the dog. When trained positively, the dog should gain greater confidence with navigating these obstacles. Conversely, a bad experience such as suffering a fall can possibly take away a dog’s confidence and engender fear.

We typically do simple trotting along low wide walls or sit and stays, things that are safe to do with a dog on a leash. I’m not sure if the mental stimulation does tire out our dog but I did read that some people use this as a method to tire out their dogs more, especially when they are time-strapped and unable to take their dogs for longer walks. I like that it helps kill the boredom of just walking along sometimes.

When having fun with dog on an urban walk, it’s also good to remember:
– Urban dog etiquette
– Only attempt what is safe for your dog’s health, size, fitness and confidence level
– Always pay close attention to what your dog is telling you, some dogs may not be comfortable with certain platforms that they perceive as unstable.
– Reward your dog and make it fun.

Sources:
– seizetheleash.com
– how to turn a dog walk into a dog challenge via life in the dog lane
– how to fully exercise your dog with shorter walks