High Mesa Mondioring Trial June 18 2006
Los Alamos, New Mexico

Judge: USA Ann Putegnat
Decoys: Michael Ellis and Tim Bartlett

Photos by John Vega
Visit www.jkv.photoreflect.com for full images and many more photos!
Story by Terry Miller

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Field Setup

The theme for our first trial was "Lord of the Rings" featuring the Nazgul (black riders) at Weathertop, flying crows, Bilbo's birthday party at the shire, Rohan, and warriors. The pennants and flags of Rohan flew everywhere. Rings of all types and sizes were used for distractions and retrieves. First place winners of each level were awarded whistles and "Lord of the Rings" lanyards. Trial T-shirts featured the High Mesa club logo with the "One Ring". Themes in Mondioring are selected to present the dogs with distractions beyond normal field setup. Along with field decoration and distraction, the handlers are also encouraged to dress in theme. While the required exercises remain the same from trial to trial, the order and field setup changes according to the host club and the judge's creativity. This enables the judge to observe the dog's work character independent of the handler's assistance. And the themes help create an atmosphere to remind us, this for fun!

The field took a huge amount of work, especially since we had to fence the trial field. It seems our soccer field is much too large for the required 40x60 meter size. Members from both clubs, High Mesa and Endeavor, family members, and even visiting handlers, all pitched in after the schutzhund trial to make a Mondioring field. With everyone pitching in it took only a few hours to complete for Ann to walk the field and mark for judging the next day. The next morning the field was bright with pennants and monsters drawing curious spectators and even a tour bus!

Obedience:
heeling, absence, food refusal, send out, retrieve, positions, and search of object

In Mondioring there are specific exercises and rules for each level, but the judge uses creativity to devise scenarios that increase difficulties and distractions for each level. Before the handlers compete, they are walked through the course along with a demo dog. It is up to the handler (with help from the Deputy Judge) to remember what was instructed. The dog is worked through all exercises in one session, which for a MR3 doing all the exercises, can take 40 minutes. The Brevet is the briefest, only doing heeling, retrieve, and absence for the obedience requirements.


The handler starts by reporting to the judge and then follows the Deputy Judge (Paul Therkildsen) to each preparation point. Shown here are Nina and Rocco greeting the Judge in the Rohan tent.

Diane (the hobbit) and Nico start the heeling exercise in front of the stoic warrior. High Mesa is very proud of both their entries. These are both SchH3 dogs that decided to try Mondio. They earned their Brevet titles, with Ann Malburg and Zac getting 2nd place with a very nice 94 points out of 100. Diane Wray and Nico earned 99 points, a new record for Brevet!

Mondio heeling differs from schutzhund heeling in a number of ways. First, the pattern is unknown until the Chien en Blanc demo given by the judge. This dog is lead through each of the exercise on or off leash to demo what is wanted by the judge. It is a good opportunity for new or retired dogs, and also a chance for the handlers to learn what is required. Position is very important, the dog must not forge past the leading leg, but precision is not required with head and feet positions. The handler may be asked to go around or over or sit next to anything. A very important difference is that in schutzhund the handler gives the dog heel commands at change of speed or heeling after the dog has sat. In Mondioring, the command to heel is given at the start, and can not be given again throughout the exercise. This is true for ALL the exercises and many handlers lost points for extra commands. Too much talking to the dog earns a zero for the entire exercise, this happened to one of our favorite dogs to watch, the beautiful GSD Rocco. So in Mondioring, quoting our Scottish hobbit, "keep your GOB shut"!

For MR1, all the obedience exercises except search of object are required. The food refusal was done next to the crowd, J-Buco is tempted by the food handler Ann Malburg, but avoids the food long enough for full points. The difficulty of food refusal for MR3 is increased, with the food actually being tossed to the dog. Additionally the Judge plants food in various spots on the field. The dog must ignore it.
MR1 levels and up must also demonstrate a change of positions. The handler at our trial sat on the hay-bales and commanded the dog at distance through the change of positions, sit, stand, and down. Points are deducted for moving forward toward the handler.
The MR3 also did a search for object. A handler's scented little piece of wood is placed in the middle of neutral scent woods. Feist was able to locate the woods, but turned his nose up at the scent Lisa had chosen to use that day, and brought back a clean wood instead.

A nice feature in Mondioring allows the handler to "prepare" the dog and tell him which exercise is expected. This preparation line is 3 meters from the official start line. When ready, the team moves to the start line for an official start. James Hall and Diablo are shown here preparing for the send away, it helps to be very clear to the excited dog. James is whispering "straight and fast!"

Exercises and distractions increase at each level. For the Brevet retrieve the handler has choice of a retrieve object. The Brevet schutzhund handlers Diane and Ann chose to use the dumbbell, for MR1 the judge selected a straw wreath. Leri is shown here tossing for her APBT Capone who did a nice job. The MR3 used a small hard plastic ring which was tossed toward the crowd and a pile of objects. Feist is shown here presenting perfectly for Lisa.

Jumps:
Hurdle, Palisade, Long Jump

Some of the most thrilling work is done on the jumps. These exercises require not only physical fitness, but good technical ability. The hurdle is adjustable from 1 to 1.2 meters high. The dog must jump both directions without knocking off the bar, then return to handler standing at the side. The Palisade (vertical wall) starts at 1.8 meters and can be adjusted to a full height of 2.3 meters. The long jump requires a leap of at least 3 meters and can be adjusted up to 4 meters in length. Brevet levels must jump the hurdle and MR1 dogs choose a jump. The MR3 level requires all three jumps.

Feist and Odin show good technique and strength by pulling themselves over the Palisade. Diego jumps the hurdle both directions as James directs him. Loki flies easily over the long jump as Chien en Blanc (demo dog) for the MR3 level.

Protection:
Defense of Handler, Frontal Attack, Escape, Stopped Escape, Search and Escort, Guard of Object

The Weathertop scene provided the back drop for the Defense of Handler routines. Brevet handlers greeted a friendly Tim in front of the riders then were directed to walk around the hay-bale obstruction where they were then "hit" by mean Tim. Shown here are Ann and Zac greeting Tim, then Nico defending Diane. Both schutzhund 3 dogs earned their Brevets with very nice performances.

The protection routines in Mondioring are used to judge the character, courage, discipline, and spirit of the dog. Points are deducted not only only for failure to engage, but also for lack of discipline such as rapid changes in bite, each bite after out command, per second biting after out command (1 second allowed).

The Defense of Handler judges the dog's behavior under a variety of scenarios in which there is always a "friendly" decoy that shakes hands, and an aggressive decoy who attacks the handler. This may be the same or different decoy for each, the dog must recognize friendly versus aggresive behavoir. The difficulty created for the dog progresses at each level, but the aggression is always clear and evident and made with both hands. The difficulty in this excercise is that the handler can not talk to the dog, the dog must act appropriately on his own. Full points are lost if the handler talks to dog after start of excercise, or if dog bites before the hit, if the dog abandons the handler, if the dog attacks a third person, or if he does not bite at defense of the handler being hit.

During Defense of Handler the MR1 handlers met and shook hands with friendly Michael at the flock of flying crows. They walked under the crows and around the weathertop ruins until they were attacked by bad guy Michael. Shown here is warrior Don and Odin greeting Michael, then Capone defending Leri just after she was hit.

In the MR3 version of Defense of Handler Lisa is met by a friendly Tim wielding a big sword. She then followed instructions to sit on the hay-bale obstruction while Tim and Michael had a "friendly" fight. Feist was not impressed. Tim returned and tossed rings with Lisa where she was hit as she sat on the prickly hay. Feist defended Lisa without hesitation, grabbing Michael as he tried to back away.

Both the Brevet and MR1 are presented with a charging Face attack. Both the dog and decoy charge while facing each other, the higher levels show more intimidation than the lower levels. The Face attack with obstacle is used to slow the dog down in order to judge courage in face of threats and being charged. The obstacle should never present any danger. We used a line of hay-bales which are safe and useful throughout the trial in the different excercises. Here Diego shows his character by engaging Tim. For the MR3, accessories are used to discourage the dog, here Feist shows no hesitation from the squiggly wiggly hose things.

The Flee attack requires the decoy to attempt an escape, he defends himself vigorously to test the dog's grip and character. A gun is used and two shots are fired before the dog is recalled back to handler. Here Odin shows his commitment to stop Michael's escape. The MR3 must do this same excercise, but also must do a version where the dog is recalled back to the handler just before touching the decoy. The handler does not know which of two Flee excercises it to be stopped until a green flag is shown after the dog is sent after the running decoy.

For the MR3 Search and Escort, bad guy Michael hid in a blind between the black riders. Feist found and held him, also keeping a quick eye on the creepy Nazgul. Who is the real bad guy here? Feist's guard was tight and vigilant as he worked around and over the hay-bale obstacle where Michael tried a tricky move that almost landed him on his face with Feist holding on tight. This excercise must deonstrate the dog's ability to bring a fleeing lawbreaker to bay and stopping him if he tries to flee. Discipline is demonstrated by guarding close and without biting during the guarding or escorts.

The most difficult excercise to teach and the most impressive to watch is the Guard of Object.
The dog is left with an object to guard while the handler leaves out of sight. The dog must work on his own to keep decoys from stealing the object. The dog may bite if the decoy is within a designated distance, but must let go and move back to the object once the decoy moves away. Here Feist successfully guards a bag of black orbs (soccer balls), watching for the approaching decoy. And this is toward the end of all the previous excerises in over 90 degree heat at 7000 feet! He did have a half time break to hose down and cool down before proceeding. The dog's health and safety is a priority on and off the field.

A BIG HUG AND THANK YOU to everyone who worked so hard! Thank you Paul for being such a solid and sure Deputy Judge. Your calmness is inspiring! Thank you Don Lee making sense of the scoresheets and lending advice and support. All the visiting handlers were amazing, stepping in to help where needed. Leri Hanson helped me finish paperwork and Marki assisted our new Deputy Judge through his first dogs.

Thank you to all of High Mesa; Elane for taking care of the Raffle, I ended up being a little busy trying to act as Secretary. Diane and Ann not only handled a very impressive Brevet with their SchH3 dogs, but they also worked as field help for the food refusal and little woods. Jaime put together some wonderful field props with very neat flags, banners, riders, and warriors. She also stepped in to take care of refreshments for decoys and judge, and then put together the evening barbecue.
We also had a lot of help from the Endeavor members including Marsha, Joan, and Karen. Larry took care of my mom and brought the barbecue and worked until the last minute. Laurie and her sons Kyle and Cole were everywhere, Laurie and Paul help donate awards. And a extra special hug to the work horse Susan Ramsey, her daughter Nikki, and her husband David who built the mondio equipment and tweaked until everyone was happy. The Ramseys also brought most the props including the horse jump standards, hay bales, barrels, and talked the ski hill into letting us borrow their pretty blue fencing. Everywhere I looked I saw club members and visiting handlers working hard. And it is because of them our first time trial went so smooth. I also would like to thank my mom who drove down from Utah to help doing everything and anything including painting flags and running errands all the time. Thanks mom!


A special thank you to USA Judge Ann Putegnat who ran her first trial with such comfort and effieciency. Ann agreed to short critiques for each dog. These really added to the trial, we enjoyed hearing what the judge saw, and what the results were. She did a super job with both the handlers and the people on the field to help her.
And not least, thank you to both decoys, Tim and Michael. They not only worked hard to keep the dogs safe and successful, but they kept us entertained! Both men showed admirable sportsmanship and contribute in a big way to the sport of Mondioring.



A Special Thank You to our Full Sponsors who made this trial possible!
Pet Pangaea, Zukes, and Natura-Innova Dog Foods

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Last Update: July 6, 2006 6:00 PM