# MondioRing Search and Escort Training



## Tim Bartlett (May 21, 2007)

Here is a video of Lisa's dog Villier des Contes D'Hoffmann training the Search and Escort. He is beginning to really understand the exercise and when finished, will be pretty difficult to steal any meters from. The true test will be in December when he attempts his MR3......

For those of you that are not familiar with MR, the decoy is allowed to use obstacles, etc. to attempt to steal meters from the dog in this exercise. The obstacles are always different so the dog needs to see as many things as possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqiW-AHLkW0


----------



## Scott Dunmore (May 5, 2006)

Wow, he's looking awesome! Great control.

Does he choose to be moving backwards facing the decoy or is that how you prefer to teach that exercise?


----------



## Barrie Kirkland (Nov 6, 2007)

thats fantastic, a great sport in my view, however one i will never get the opportunity to experience


----------



## Tim Bartlett (May 21, 2007)

He escorts out of both positions but prefers to be escorting backwards. He is a funny dog and when he starts to feel pressure from obstacles in front or behind him, he begins to really push into the decoy. 

We will try and get a good video of his object guard this weekend and post as well.......

Tim


----------



## Lisa Maze (Mar 30, 2007)

This little graphic pretty much sums up Villier's motivation for escorting walking backwards in front of the decoy as opposed to the reverse. In France, a whip was used to teach him to "go to his place" between the legs in the escort so he likes to keep his "cash and prizes" away from the handler. 

You will notice he occasionally glances at me (I am holding the camera so it looks like he is looking at the camera) during the escort. We have a much better relationship now but old habits die hard. Corrections now come from the e-collar so he doesn't have to constantly divide his attention between the decoy and the handler. Which is even harder in MR as on several exercises there are two decoys. In the beginning, he nearly got whiplash trying to watch me and both of the decoys.

Here is a picture of him before I bought him (taken by Kadi Thingvall). As you can see, he was more interested in where the handler was than the decoy. There have been several threads lately that have discussed training as a way to mask a dog's weaknesses. It also can mask their strengths. All the pressure from the handler left Villier looking as if he lacked vigilence and spirit. Now there is no doubt he has plenty of both!








.


----------



## Lisa Geller (Mar 29, 2007)

Really nice Tim/Lisa he's an impressive powerful dog.


----------



## Lisa Maze (Mar 30, 2007)

Hey Lisa,

Did you ever re-do the escort in heel position like Moguez suggested? 

Lisa


----------



## Lisa Geller (Mar 29, 2007)

Hi Lisa

Philippe was alot like my first trainer Alex Vyatkin, he was forceful and passionate. It was quite an experience working with him the week after the championships. I felt like he was kinda' the "Ivan" of Champagne/MondioRing.
It was a complete pleasure! It added back some of the magic into my dogworld=D> 

We looked at his escort and decided a side transport might be too confusing to him at this point, so reviewed alternate spots for him in the event he gets displaced. We moved him to a escort in front, since it was somewhat familiar to him and he seemed, like Villi, to prefer facing the man. We forced a front escort for a few months then let him go where he prefered (a little front, a little rear) I'm pretty pleased on how it works. I think this would have been a difficult front to rear -- but since he is a such a fast dog it is working well. He's like a clown dog when he walks backwards 
I've been holding back my videos -- seems people get weird when you post too many videos about your dog, and lord knows I have a few -- maybe I'll show you the somewhat finished escort.

Looking forward to going to Italy!
lg


----------



## Lisa Maze (Mar 30, 2007)

Yes, I agree with your opinion of Phillipe. We not only enjoyed training with him but hanging out with him and Sylvia as well. 

Truth is I am glad you did not change your escort style. I do understand his point that "he" is very good at taking meters from a dog out of this position but a common problem I see is handlers changing their training after every trial because so and so took points from their dog. No dog or training program is without its weaknesses.

Besides, we work really hard to get correct animated heeling and escorting in the guard ruins good heeling. I would rather have pretty heeling and lose a couple points out of the escort.

In my opinion, a dog is either good at the escort or not regardless of position. Villier is very physical and has little body sensitivity. He loves forcing his way between the decoy's legs and from the start being bumped into and shoved over obstacles on the field was no problem. The harder you shove him the harder he shoves back. Between the legs, in heel or where ever, the decoy who steals meters from him will have to be a super hero. But do not despair decoys, there are plenty of other places to take points from him.

And bah-humbug to those who do not like your videos. At the moment, I am besotted with Villier. When I see a link to a thread that does not catch my interest, I don't click on it...simple. Everyone knows you are goo-goo-gaw-gaw over Goose so they should not be surprised you post videos of him all over the place. It is like the parent who flips out eighteen years of photos out of their wallet. It is worse for me now because we have Sara shooting away at the field during training. Being the expressive goofball he is, Villier is a great subject so I always get lots of photos to share. If someone does not think my dog being strangled by a hoola hoop is funny then they don't have to look...unlike me who looks one hundred times!

So share away,

Lisa


----------



## Lisa Geller (Mar 29, 2007)

Here's a current escort. The decoy is Josiah Neuman -- someone who showed up for the mondio Championships in April and never left.
I think he is addicted to Mondioring... or our dogs, I'm not sure which.
also, I'm not sure about what you are saying about changing styles after trials -- I think it is imparitaive to trial to discover your weakness in training -- and then, modify as required. right?
That's interesting what you said about the pretty heeling vs. using a side transport. Have you experienced that to be true?

also I'm really goo goo gaw gaw about all of my Loup du Soleils.
Thanks for being good at that too!

here's that escort video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkocKiVdUBo


----------



## Lisa Maze (Mar 30, 2007)

Looking good. You are nicer to Josiah than I am to Tim. When he tries something too crazy on the escort I scold him for it.

As far as the trials inspiring training, yes you do need trials to expose your weakenesses and your training to bolster those weaknesses before the next trial. However, in Schutzhund there is a saying that goes something like the difference between 98pts and 99pts is zero. As in sometimes when you are trying to fix a little problem you create a big one. My point being that a world class decoy taking a few meters from your dog on an obstacle in the escort does not warrant retraining the entire escort. The next decoy you meet in trial may be an expert at peeling dogs off who escort in heel position. 

As far as the escort/heeling issue I have actually seen it work both ways. In Loki's case he did not have pretty heeling but his postion in the heeling changed as they gave him more leeway in the position in the escort. You should not get saliva on your right knee cap when heeling with a 24 inch malinois. I also watch BB's (Tango's father) heeling improve when they taught him to escort in heel position. I can promise you Philippe did not spend hours on the pretty focussed heeling he got from BB.

I am a slave to heeling:-D 

Lisa


----------



## Lisa Geller (Mar 29, 2007)

point taken (regarding trialing)

I'm a slave to heeling too. I think it shows us (as in the trainers) more than anything else. I'm just not as good at it yet. In the heeling exercise Mongoose heels in a focus manner but his position is off,he crowds and he's like a tank, no fluidity at all.
... next dog will be better,  
or.. the next after that :-k


----------

