| Subject: mondio ring/francis metcalf |
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dominic
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Date Posted: 17:08:38 11/14/07 Wed
Francis Metcalf Interview 2/09/02
Can you tell me about when you first saw Mondio?
I first saw the Leerburg tapes and I was just blown away. Federic Beyer was the decoy with a blazer type jacket and he looked like Devo out there. It was so creative. Then Kathy (O'Brien) got involved. She started telling me about Mondioring and showing me stuff, so even though I saw the Leerberg tapes, it was Kathy O'Brien and Bomber who got me interested. I saw some more videos and in 99 when I went to France for the summer, I went to Vincent Porcu's club and they were doing Mondio. M. Porcu sat me down and with the help of a translater explained Mondioring to me. A guy named Phillipe Mogeze who was the decoy for the 99 Championship. He coached me on how to be a MR decoy and I spent three of my off weeks working with him. M. Porcu insisted that I do the decoy selection. Not just insisted, like maybe, but, he was very supportive and wanted me to go with them to Dunkirk. I didn't really know where it was. But it ended up 11 hours away at in the NW of France. At a trial that was the opening of the Stead de lion De lior in honor of the founding father of FR. They had a FR trial, a Mondioring trial, an Agility Trial and an Obedience trial. It was all in honor of Leon De Tilliarair and that's where I did my Mondioring Decoy Selection and that's where I met Rocchi (Phillipe Rocchi) and Roma and I was blown away by them. I got to look at French Ring and Mondioring and French Ring and Mondioring and Mondioring. Someone made a 399 in FR and I slept through it. In the Mondioring, I was intrigued by the creativity and the theatrical ascpectos of it. I really love making up scenerios and making up themes. I did my decoy selection for Mondioring and I competed with Turbeaux at Level 1 and got 189.5 and came in 3rd and was phyched about that. I returned to M. Porcu's club and he wanted me to do a trial, but I wanted to explore more of France. That year I also met up with Kathy and Kelly McCullough who had been training with Michel Valladan and I saw the championship trial and learned more about Mondioring. At that point, I had already adopted the MR cause even in the midst of FR Fanatiasism in France. Even though I trained with the old FR school guys, I tried to make my MR points which was pretty much a losing battle, but when you are dealing with guys who are trying to win the championship, it is kind of like ripping goal. So, when I got back to America, I started training with FR and Belgiam Ring enthusiasts. It was good because I got to learn a ltitle more about BR and I started learning about using MR scenarios to help proof. I discovered it was useful not just a spectacle. It just sunk pretty much more into me.
We spoke the other day about socialization and enviormental imprinting, where you talked about different surfaces and enviorments. Could you say a little more about that?
I basically want a working dog that has the social tempermant of a Golden Retriever. I want a happy go lucky. I bring my dogs everywhere and let them meet people and try and get petted. I bring the puppies everywhere and to all kind of eviorments. The great thing about Mondioring is that you don't really need a field. One of the big holes I see in the malinois is enviormental sensitivity. One of the big points that M. Porcu said was that Mondioring is the true genetic test because it incorporates social pressure and enviormental pressure and pressure from the decoy. I don't feel that it easier than FR. I think MR people should train for FR and FR people should train FR. If you puppy doensnt' work out with the sport if it's not enviormentally sound and social you can't do anything with it.
I try and do rural urban and suburban. Those are all the places that are human enviorons. If you start out with rural and bring your dog for a walk, there are smells and all kinds of stuff for them to learn how to navigate. In the suburaban landscape, it can be more intimidating because there's lots of stuff and then there is dead space and then there can be loud strangd noises. In urban landscape it's a flooding of stuff. I start as soon as I get them eight weeks or earlier if possible. I also have a lot of props. I have a vibrating table that has a motor with an off set flywheel on it that a friend made. You slowiy crank up the motor and it shakes. If you crank it all the way up it starts rocking which is too much for new puppys, Unsteady surfaces, weird sounds, air brakes, numatic tools, constuctions sites, Home depot, echo-y halls. All that stuff is the enviorns that the dog has to work with. I let the envorment tell me what I eneed to train with.
What kind of advice would you give to someone interested in starting out in Mondioring?
Internet is the hugest dog resource, the US Mondioring Association site, Rene's site (www.mondioring.ch) has all kinds of good things on it. Kadi Thingvall's site has all kinds of great links. Michel Vallandan's site (www.animalor.fr) has some very nice point deductions and training charts. You need to find someone experienced to help you pick a dog and train. You can save a lot of discouragement if you have this help.
What qualities do you look for in choosing a working dog?
What I keep in my head is the Indian proverb. The prince was preparing to be a king and he wanted to know what he needed. He was told an elephant, a conselor and a general . These were all analogies of desired qualities. He needed the ability to process agression and drive which is the general who gives direction and plans, the conseler - sociability, mondioring is the social ability test and ability to work with the handler and the elphant , the ability to work with obstacles and bound through anything. That's my analogy for what to look for. I look for a dog that's non-reactive, socially confident, enviormentally confident and has a high recovery factor, a fast recovery and a dog that loves to bite. Any of the ring sports allow you to do things many ways. You don't have to have a fast dog, you don't have to have a full biting dog All you really need to have is a dog that is willing to do the program and is going to have fun. I don't think that people should train dogs who don't want to do it. If the dog is too scared to take on the threat of the decoy, I don't think it's fair to put them in that situation where they are scared all the time. If someone came to me and asked me to help pick out a puppy, the first thing I look at is the parents. I don't look at the papers. The next thing I look at is the puppy away from it's normal enoviorment. I want all the normal things, a full biting dog and a dog that excelerates in it's entry. I can see that in a puppy. I want a dog that can retrieve metal. I want a dog that jumps on me and wants to dominate me.
What about advice on working the dog?
Forget about Mondioring and learn the fundatmentals. Learn theory- how to train a dog and also how to hold the leash. Learn the science and get someone to teach you the art. You need someone to show you the art of bringing it all together. If you haven't already, you should read "Don't Shoot the Dog" to learn about positive reinforcement. All bitework is the basis of positive reinforcement. Getting a handle on basic learning theroy is a smart thing and having someone who can can interpert the dog and someone who can coach you as a handle too. This can make you realize what the finished product looks like so you can find a way to get there.
Augusta's Training Notes
Our Francis Metcalf Mondio and French Ring Seminar will be hard to top. Four days of learning and polishing trial routines, practical methods of training the exercises for the young dog and filling in holes in the older dogs, selecting and developing super puppies were only some of the topics we covered. Francis is clearly infected with the Ring Virus and he shared stories and insights with us on the field and around the campfire.
I had the chance to finally figure out how to fix Jesse's guard. The answer was that it wasn't broken. She had been taught an "obedience" guard, eg, stay there until recalled. No matter how much I tried to "fix" the vigilence problem, the more she tried to tell me how she learned it. Francis' travels to France had given him the opportunity to watch and participate in training and he was able to bring back that knowledge and apply it to my French Ring I
female.
Francis' skill in teaching small details of the Mondioring program is etched in my memory while watching him work Laura Harris' Ludo. In working the program for mondio Laura and Ludo had trained around chairs for the defence so that Ludo was sure that climbing on a chair was part of the exercise. Francis knew to look for this training mistake and he then carefully worked Ludo repeatedly by the chair with a combination of simple interuptions and bite rewards until Ludo made the decision to continue the escort pass the chair with 4 feet on the ground. Had a trial helper noticed the mistake it could have been a costly one.
Another interesting detail is how Francis teaches the basket. He considers the basket a part of a recall sequence. It is the spot the dog returns to when "cued" by the decoy. The decoy's cue is his freezing when the dog bites and then starting to move away. At that moment the dog should "hear" the basket calling him. In working the dogs on the basket, Francis also made it very black and white for the young dog when it was acceptable to bite and
when it wasn't. He moved exactly along the perimeter of the circle until he wanted to let the dog bite at which time he moved his leg deliberately toward the dog and inside the circle. For the dog he was working, this repetitive move with no other variations helped it discriminate between the cues to stay on the basket and the cues to bite.
I could fill a book on all the information we gleaned over the weekend. If you are training Ring or Mondio, I can't recommend anyone more highly than Francis. His teaching and coaching is easy on the ego and every dog came away more confident and clear in the work. He has a logical and practical system of building the exercises and proofing the dog that should fit well with everyone's training program. He was able to work the puppies and older dogs, weak and strong dogs equally well.
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