3) upper body bites

For the puppy the majority of the work is biting the legs, but I like to mix in a few armpit bites with a removable puppy sleeve periodically.  I do this with something completely blocking like a tarp or towel set up across a jump or something.  The puppy is on leash teased for the leg bite but then when you step laterally behind the tarp or towel you attract the dog up and target it for a proper armpit bite.  The dog learns really fast to redirect to the open target instead of being fixated on where the leg went.  Balance these into sessions periodically doing more as the pup is older so they can transfer their target on a dime and as they are coming fast downfield.  This technique seems to be more and more popular as the accessories used in mondioring get more and more dense in what the dog would have to plow through to find a leg.  Leg fixation at that point will lose many points for "slow to bite".

2 )entries

By puppy I mean from when teething is done to about 10 months which yeah does get into the area of "young dog" as well.  So now the targeting is perfect...  Now I look to the dog to tell me what kind of entry building it needs.  Usually on leash drag into the bite builds drive to pull and give it their all and have a nice snappy grip once  they get there.  I quickly move them on from there to drag-to-free bites.  That last few feet has the handler let go of the leash to give the pup an exhilerating moment of finally! freedom.  The distance of the free part is gradually worked to be longer depending on the dog's reaction.  If you see hesitation instead of elation, then take it back to rotating between full drag ins - no free, and drag in with short end bursts of free in order to build up their confidence in their ability to do it on their own.  It's just a puppy, so unless it's more like 8 months than 5 months time is way on your side, no need to rush, let the pup progress at the pace they need.  Some young dogs do better with no restraint from the handler just free sends because they are very confident and want to run as fast as they can for the joy of getting there faster.  

So now the desire is strong, the grip is where you intended it to be, the grip is how it should be for their age, and the pup is building up its confidence for running in to get the bite on their own.  Next is some elementary upper body introduction for the primary leg dog so that later when it gets blocked by some giant accessory it won't bat an eye, but will plow over it to get a high bite.  

1) mondioring puppy progression

So I work the training club's puppies as often as I can because I like doing it.  I have a specific progression I want to accomplish with each of them and seeing them progress makes it worth it to me.  Primarily I want the little guys to learn first to pull on the harness and be excited for the moving rag, puppy sleeve whatever.  Second I want them to bite how I like them to - calm, full and hard.  I know that seems counterintuitive to some ring trainers, but I like the puppy bite to be that way because it's not going to stay that way, they will learn to fight and counter when they are older, but right now they need their head clear and calm to learn a few things that will follow them their entire working career.  While they are young and in a good state of mind, no distractions like environmental stuff, not much clatter stick besides mild background noise, no issues created from overstepping their threshold etc -this is the prime time to focus only on the targeting including turning the head both directions and biting mid-shin to knee.  Until they have that mastered I don't like to bring in anything else that can cloud their thinking or desire to bite right where I want them to.  Too much stick or environmental -which is usually any since they are so young and clueless still causes them to have difficulty learning the basics.  I failed my first training skydive because there was just too much going through my head to think straight, dogs are the same, they learn better if their head is in the right place.  Once the targeting is so reliable that I know a leashless bite will still end up in the right spot, the I move on to building the entry....

Roscoe goes from traveling skydive bum to mondioring dog

Roscoe is my boy, a 2 year old belgian malinois.  He trains for mondioring, but he got a pretty late start.  Shortly after I got him I learned to skydive, which I found out is highly addictive, moreso to some degree than dog training and competing.  So my wonderfully bred malinois became my traveling buddy going from dropzone to dropzone for weeks on end while I jumped from hundreds of planes.  I don't think he minded, he's gotten to run amok all over the west coast, southwest and mountain states in his short 2 years.  Then the husband and I and the 3 dogs packed it up and moved to Salt Lake City, UT.  Now we have skydiving only 1/2 hour away and the Perrine bridge in Idahoto b.a.s.e. jump from only 3.5 hrs away.... so we don't need to travel so much to have fun, and thus began Roscoe's re-introduction into the life of training that should have happened from the time he was a little guy.