SSaturday 11 and Sunday 12 January, the 18th edition of the Trail de Pécharmant, in Bergeracois (Dordogne), saw unprecedented attendance, with more than 800 participants. Among them were crews with two feet and four legs: those of canicross. Around fifty people lined up for the events on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, starting from Château du Roc in Creysse.
This is not surprising, since the Spiridon Périgord Pourpre (SPP), organizer of the Trail de Pécharmant, has had a canicross section since September 2023. “This is a plus for our association which has a total of 160 licensees,” underlines the president of the SPP , Jean-Michel Toinet. And within this workforce, 31 canicross licensees are listed.
“Most are beginners, supervised by three initiators who have five to six years of practice,” adds the head of the section, Geoffroy Lassimouillas. Because the practice of this discipline is relatively recent in France. “Initially, it was created by mushers [NDLR : conducteurs de traîneaux] to train their dogs in summer,” specifies the canine entertainer.
An idea from the North
The practice has therefore existed in the Nordic countries for many decades, with a few variations such as scootering with a dog and bikejoring (cycling with a dog). The discipline spread in Europe, via England, from the beginning of the 1980s. In France, it was at the end of this same decade that it began its development, under the impetus of a Lyon veterinarian, Gilles Pernoud.
Today, under the aegis of the French Federation of Canine Sports and Leisure (FFSLC), there are more than 6,000 licensees registered in France. “The FFSLC organizes regional and national competitions which provide access to the European and world championships,” explains Geoffroy Lassimouillas.
To the canicross there is added a variant which is the canitrail, for distances greater than 10 km. Participants in the Pécharmant Trail were entitled to both, with a nighttime canicross on Saturday, over 7 km, and a canitrail on Sunday, over 12 km.
The manager provides some details: “It is a sport open to all breeds, from 18 months for canicross and 24 months for canitrail. After the dog is 9 years old, medical monitoring is requested, because the objective is for it to remain a pleasure for our companions. »
The practice is open to all: on the starting lines this weekend, we could come across two disabled runners, who came to have fun with their faithful canines. The opportunity to underline the importance of the complicity between master and dog in the practice of this discipline.
Despite everything, some knew each other very little, like this Lot-et-Garonnais runner who came to do the canitrail in the company of a resident of the Bergerac SPA. An establishment with which the canicross section of the SPP maintains close relations; It is very regularly that residents of the Bergerac refuge are taken care of for sporting walks with the licensees.
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