The Object Guard is an exercise in all of the ring sports (Mondioring, French Ringsport, Belgian Ringsport) where the dog is required to guard an object from a decoy without the handler being present. The dog is expected to bite the decoy when they come within a specific distance of the object and then return to the object when the decoy begins to retreat. If the decoy happens to steal the object without being bit, the dog loses all the points for the exercise. Each of the sports have their own variations of the exercise. For instance, in Mondioring, the object can be a wide variety of things from a car tire to a bag of clothes; while in French Ring, the object is always a basket. In Belgian Ring, they have a second object guard exercise which is done in a muzzle on a decoy in street clothes.

In this video, Anneliese and Ryan are working with Anneliese's dog, Tanzi, on the foundation of the object guard at one of Leerburg's training centers. [READ MORE]

We are unsure if our dogs understand that YES means they are released. They know it means a reward is coming but how do we know if they understand the release?

When we start teaching our dog that a behavior is over when we mark a behavior, we do it by using the reward delivery to get the dog to move his feet. By that, I mean we will mark and toss the reward a couple of feet. We let the dog chase it. Or we mark and then lure the dog away from the spot that he had just been doing the behavior. If you do this a hundred or more times, the dog will realize that when you mark, he gets to move and get his reward.

We feel understanding the difference between the Mark/Release and a Duration marker is important. So make an effort to make sure your dog understands the release marker.