Hello again!

In January, we are celebrating National Train Your Dog Month at Redfern and part of our celebration is what you are reading right now! Each Friday in January, I (Portia) will be sending out Portia’s Tiny Tidbit—a one topic mini-newsletter!

This week I want to talk about something that I have been hearing my mom (Betsy) talk about for the past couple of weeks! Parkour! Now that is a totally new word to me, so I googled it and found out that originally Parkour referred to HUMANS only and has an ancient, worldwide history! Parkour as a human sport first became part of the World Games in 2022. With its roots in military obstacle course training, it is basically a sport in which competitors attempt to get from Point A to Point B in the fastest, most efficient manner without using any special equipment.

So, what is Dog Parkour? Often called Urban Agility, Canine Parkour teaches dogs and their humans how to safely navigate Environmental Features (EF's) such as logs, benches, narrow spaces, rocks, etc. It sounds like a lot of fun to me and I hope that Redfern offers a class in that this spring! (Maybe you could 'vote' for a class by letting my mom know you think it would be fun too!!)

PS--Here's a video if you want to learn more about Canine Parkour. By the way, I heard mom say that this would be a really good confidence builder for puppies or worried, fearful dogs!