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Posts Tagged ‘Ring Sport’
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
 French Ring Sport is a European dog sport that originated in France during the 1900′s. It shares a common history with Belgian Ring Sport and has a similar set of rules. Although the idea of dog sport began as a way to test the working ability of participating dogs, French Ring and Belgian Ring have always been somewhat of a spectator sport, intended to impress on-lookers with feats of canine agility and bite-work. This has lead to the development of some of the most physically demanding exercises of all dog sports.
One of the toughest exercises in French Ring is known as the palisade. It is considered an advanced agility exercise, and is only required for Ring II and Ring III titles. The palisade is essentially a vertical wall that the dog is expected to scale. The palisade must be jumped twice in a single exercise: once over, and once more to return to the handler. The minimum height for a palisade is 1.7m (5.5′), but an additional 2 points are awarded for extra 0.1m of height added to the palisade, for a maximum of 2.3m (7.5′). To put this in perspective, most municipalities impose a limit of about 2m (6.5′) on fences surrounding residential property.
The palisade in French Ring is built from horizontal planks of wood stacked one atop another and held in place by two wooden posts. During training, an incline is sometimes added to one side of the palisade to allow the dog to descend easily rather than dropping the full height of the palisade to the ground. This incline is, of course, not present in official competition.
To train a dog to scale a 2.3m palisade is certainly an impressive feat, but one should keep in mind that impressive feats in sport do not always translate to effective protection in real life. A dog that can take on a palisade with a smooth wooden top may have a great deal more difficulty attempting to scale an uneven chain-link fence. Respect should be given to those who put in the immense amount of dedication required to train their German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois for French Ring, but true protection work should be left to dogs who have been properly trained for protection work in the real world.
Tags: Belgian Malinois, dog training, French Ring, German Shepherd, Palisade, Protection Dog, Ring Sport, Sporting Dog
Posted in French Ring Sport, Sporting Dogs | No Comments »
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
 French Ring is one of several European ring sports, with the others being Belgian Ring Sport and Mondio Ring Sport. There are small differences between each, but these differences are far outweighed by the many similarities. French Ring sport, in particular, was developed in France after the popularity of sporting dogs took off in the neighbouring country of Belgium during the early 1900′s.
Like other dog sports, French Ring awards titles to dogs who perform well in exercises. These exercises are divided into three categories: obedience, agility and protection. Between dog sports, many of the basic obedience and agility tests remain the same, although each incorporates its own methods and rules for how each exercise should be performed.
Jumping exercises are one example of how the same basic concept can be performed quite differently from one sport to another. In French Ring, the agility exercises take on an element of classic track and field. For the long jump exercise, a metal “key” is placed on the ground, which the dog is expected to jump over. This key consists of hurdle-like bars that are knocked out of place should the dog fail to jump the entire distance (a minimum of 3 meters), thus allowing judges to measure the length of the jump. While it is commendable to test the distance-jumping ability of a dog, there is a big difference between jumping over a metal platform in sport, and jumping over a gap or ditch in the real world. On the other hand, KNPV makes more of an attempt to mimic real world scenarios through their hedge jump and ditch jump exercises.
Of course, you should always remember that any dog sport will never be nothing more than sport. Training German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois for real protection work requires real protection dog training.
Tags: Belgian Malinois, Dog Sport, French Ring, German Shepherd, Protection Dog, Ring Sport
Posted in French Ring Sport, Sporting Dogs | No Comments »
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
 Mondio Ring sport, sometimes spelled Mondioring without the space, is one of the world’s most recent dog sports. Mondio Ring was established in 1987 and combines the best elements of French Ring, Belgian Ring, K.N.P.V. and Schutzhund into one sport. It’s name can literally be translated into “World Ring”. Teams from all over the world are invited to participate in championships which are held throughout Europe. Despite the diversity of trainers which participate in the sport, the Belgian Malinois breed accounts for about 90% of participating dogs, with only two or three dogs of a different breed each year, usually German Shepherds.
Like the ring sports it is based on, Mondio Ring separates its exercises into three categories; obedience, agility and protection, carried out in that order. Unlike other sports, such as Schutzhund, there are no tracking exercises in Mondio Ring. Protection exercises in Mondio Ring make use of a full bite suit, no unlike those used in French Ring sport. The decoy has a variety of accessories available to use against the dog, such as a tarp to throw at the dog as it comes in for a bite, or a stick not unlike those used in Schutzhund.
Due to the improvisational nature of the protection exercises, and the fact that it combines what are considered to be the best elements of other dog sports, Mondio Ring is perhaps the dog sport that most resembles true protection work. However, this does not make it a substitute for true protection dog training. A sport is just a sport, no matter how you look at it.
Tags: Belgian Malinois, Dog Sport, German Shepherd, Mondio, Mondioring, Ring Sport
Posted in Belgian Malinois, French Ring Sport, German Shepherd, Protection Dogs, Sporting Dogs | No Comments »
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