How do you all go about training the escort in ring sport? Preferably the between-the-legs escort? I'm just curious to see how other people are doing it.

I would get the dog used to standing between your legs & or walking thru your legs first. Then proceed from there.

Heel the dog, stop & step over the dog with one leg & continue heeling.

Then teach the dog to go from a beginning heel position to the position between your legs & stand there. Give it a command name. Just like the start of the heel except between your legs. And then proceed forward to a moving heel between your legs.

Use markers with food or a toy for luring & them marking & rewarding the positions.

ETA...I do SchH/PP with my dogs, but train other things just for the heck of it. Don't know if there are any ring folks here. If so they may train it totally differently.

My dog was taught to escort from behind with his nose up the decoy's rear (that way my dog can be right on the decoy's leg when he tries to escape, and the decoy also can't see my dog, which puts my dog at an advantage), but it's a similar position to what you're describing.

We taught my dog to go to this position and to stay there with the decoy present and 2 leashes attached to 2 collars to guide him. The decoy held the leashes and manipulated him into position. When he was in the correct position, the decoy "marked" it by a quick escape and the dog was allowed to bite him as a reward. That's one way to do it, but it probably wouldn't be appropriate for a softer dog (all that manipulation by the decoy might put them into avoidance), or a dog that doesn't have a lot of time on the suit yet.

With a young dog or a softer dog, you can teach it at home with you as the "decoy," by doing what Anne described. I personally would teach the dog to go to the position first by guiding him with a leash and marking/rewarding it when he gets into the correct position, and when he's doing that well, I would start walking. You'd take a couple of steps forward at first and mark correct position. Then I'd try a couple of steps back and mark correct position. Then you can build walking distance from there. When you have that down, teach the dog how to stay in position (or get back into position) when you try to step over him or step over an obstacle.

I'm not a ringsport veteran for sure, but I've seen it done in addition to doing it with my dog. I'd be interested to hear other's methods too.

What do you use as a command? And do you know what the French term is? I just started to lure my dog in with food and say 'between' which I'm not sure if I like as a command.

Oooh, great topic. I've been wanting to teach my dog how to do this.

The command is GUARD. So, you'd say, "Dog's Name, OUT!" and when he outs, you say, "GUARD!"

You can find the rules for FR here:
http://www.ringsport.org/Rulebook2009.pdf