I'd like an explanation of the training decoy's role and the handler's role in training for French Ring. Since I'm new to this sport I'd be mostly interested in hearing about training for the Brevet and Ring 1 at this point.

Thanks.

how old is the dog? also, the excercises build up to one another, so basically, you work towards brevet, add a few exercises for fr1, and so on. do you have a decoy?
brandon

My dog is almost 18 mos old. He was started in personal protection training but I decided to move to French Ring. I have a very good training decoy. I'm asking about specifics on the training decoy's role because I've heard some comments about the corrections, praise, etc. coming from the decoy as a possible negative. I don't see it that way but was curious and would like to hear from people who are experienced in this sport.

Hi Pauline....there's more experienced 'Ring' folks on this board, but in general....

Traditionally, the decoy in FR training assumes the roll of training partner with the dog vs. adversary in normal PP training. Decoy corrections, praise from the decoy, etc...are a normal part of the training, and works very well for the right dog/decoy combination.

Now, having said that....it depends a lot on the dog as well. My own female, for example, will not accept corrections from the decoy, just makes her fight harder and amp up further, making training very difficult. Conversely, another dog in our group works as nicely for me as her decoy as she does for her handler. She has been a joy to train and should score very well on the field. I've also seen some dogs nearly ruined by harsh decoy corrections for which they were not prepared.

You should temper your training to the dog's ability/temperament, as well as to the level of skill of the person in the suit. Nothing is written in stone.

Hope this helps a little bit.

Happy and SAFE Training,
Scott

from my experience, scott's training methods are just about the same as ours, we can and do correct and praise all of our dogs while on the bite. a couple of the people in my club even work their own dogs in the pants at home, with the dog back-tied for bite developement.
brandon

Thanks for your responses. That was good information Scott.

You're most welcome, Pauline. Glad it was of some help, anyway! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Happy and SAFE Training,
Scott