USA SAYS AOK to MONDIORINGER DYNAMITE OT VITOSHA!!!!!
FEB 2002
Congratulations to
Amok (JECKYL) ot Vitosha, owned and handled by Martha Hoffman and Mondioringer
DYNAmite ot Vitosha owner handled by Kathy O'Brien for their excellent performances
at US evaluation!!!
Thanks to Kathy (again;) and because the Department of Defense is interested
in California Malinois including O'Breon's malinois, on the first weekend of
Feb "02, I had the extreme good fortune of participating in a Dog Evaluation
conducted by Dr. Stewart Hillard at Ryan and Megan Tulchinsky's Alert K-9 Training
Center in Brentwood, California. Stewart's working of dogs in his Schutzhund
Training Video opened new thoughts in my mind and he has since been a sort of
hero to me. He is a super nice, friendly guy who was very patient and clear
even to me, a beginner. I got to work my Ysha and handle some other really great
dogs for a few segments. I was thrilled with this opportunity. Great weather
AND Alluring Nikita and her pups showed up for a little socialization and to
melt our hearts. It was a perfect weekend.
In the Department of Defense Dog Evaluation, like Mondioring trials, the dogs
are asked to work on an unfamiliar terrain with environmental pressures. Unlike
Mondioring, for some exercises, the dog is handled by an unfamiliar person,
commands are not used and the evaluation seemed to be based on the soundness
and character of the dog and not on the handling or necessarily the dog's understanding
of the "game".
I was very pleased with how my young dog, O'Bre-ons Ysha Rose did and since
I knew some of the dogs there, I saw a connection to some degree with how the
dogs were brought up and well they did. Dr. Hillard says that the government
does not do the same time consuming program that Kathy
and her O'bre-ons Malinois team do. But he did say that the nature/nurture
theory could be tested by producing two litters of similar breeding and only
imprint half the pups of each litter and follow all the pups progress. I thought
for a minute that it might be a good experiment with the most excellent sisters,
Dyna and Dyna's full sister DiteFR2 owned/handled by Kelly McCullough. But then
Kathy and Kelly would never NOT do the imprinting work on their pups. It's kind
of like not teaching your kid to read……
Following is a description of the testing that weekend. The handler and dog
walked down a road and are approached by a gang of people walking towards them.
A piece of plastic lattice wall was dropped on the dog as the people walk past.
The dog was walked to another area for retrieve and scent work. First, the dog
was carefully offered a metal bar to first hold and then retrieve, a piece of
pvc pipe and then a retrieve object like a kong or ball tug toy. The grip was
tested and then the toy was thrown for retrieval. The retrieve became increasingly
difficult until the last one, where dog got to see the throw, be walked away
through a crowd of people and hidden while the toy was moved. Then dog and handler
walked to where the toy is trapped under a metal grate that is leaned at an
angle and held in place by the testers feet and the dog's reaction is observed.
The next sequence was going into a dark building. When the door was opened,
a wall made of a pile of various containers fell out towards the dog. The dog
was allowed to recover and then, the dog and handler went inside. The handler
asked the dog to go up and over a table made of a metal case opened up on top
of stacked objects, while a bucket was tossed on the table, jump down onto the
ground and walk over a folded xpen and return back over the table into another
room to meet "Tarp Man". In the next room was a person covered with
a large tarp, who waited hiding in the dark corner and then approached the dog
in a menacing manner.
After all the dogs went through this sequence, there was hidden sleeve bitework.
This was done in another dark building again using thrown objects to impress
the dog. A 5gal plastic water bottle, tarp, push broom, and boinker stick were
used as accessories, but unlike Mondioring, sometimes contact was actually made
on the dog's body. This was followed outside by sleeve and/or suit work, depending
on each dog's style of training.
This weekend really validated what I have come to believe about augmenting good
genetics by "imprinting" and early socialization in general and Mondioring
training in specific. Both the dogs that were selected this time have had fantastic
imprinting done and their training has been Mondioring in Dyna's case and had
elements of Mondioring in Jeckyls place. In any case, I got some great ideas.
"Tarp Man", the falling wall behind the door and the broom could be
good distractions on the absence, as well as used in the heeling pattern and
defense of handler. One day an object can be a retrieve, the next day it can
be a distraction and another time it can be an accessory. There is a beauty
in the interchangeability of Mondioring and in many ways Dr. Hillard's Evaluation
reminded me of Mondioring. On a site he had not been to before, with the objects
that were available, he prepared a fascinating training field. It was great
to see how he masterfully worked the dogs, insuring that even the weak dogs
ended with a "win". I was a little nervous and unsure of how my dog
would react to some of the situations, but feel the my dog came out of the evaluation
stronger and will think fondly on that when we pay our taxes in the spring ;)))
Dyna's first litter by Jeckyl will be due I think in the late spring of 2002. It will be exciting to help with these pups and hear how they do. This litter will be a "U" so we are collecting "U" names. They might go with all of them as "O-Bre-on's USA _____" . As far as "U" 's so far, we have Unity, United we stand, Undefeated, "United Bites of America"Uncle Sam, USA-UFO, Ultima, Utimo, Ultimum, Ultimate, Ultra, Ultra Marine, Ultrasonic, Umbo, Umlaut, Umpire, Umpirage, Unamimous, Unassailable, Unavoidable, Unbearable, Unbeatable, Union, Unison, Unknown K9, Unleash, Unload, Untie, Unto, Untouchable, Up, Up against the Wall, Uprise, Uproar, Upright, Urgent, Usher, Utmost. Please send any other "U" ideas to sharon@freedo.com.
To see more of Dyna and O'Bre-on's Malinois, go to www.freedo.com/obreons
