Club Mondio was honored to have the pleasure of having MR level 1 2007 World Champion Jos Helsen, as judge for our October 2007 “Birthday Party” Mondioring trial, here in Corning, California. With his fabulous trial results, we were curious as to how Jos starts out his young dogs and, in his usual generous fashion, he explained his system.

“We take the puppy into town and to training to meet and know people a little bit. By five months, the dog must learn and know only three things- sit, come and stay. The puppy starts out in the house with Marlene (his lovely wife)She shows him these things in a playful way using food and gentle guidance. Marlene spends months with the puppy making my job easy. When I take the puppy outside, there is already a long leash on the ground and the puppy plays and when he comes to Marlene, she attaches the leash to his collar in a way that he is unaware that he is being “connected.” Then, when I call him to “come” it is possible to make a strong leash correction if he does not come, teaching him that he MUST come when I call him. When he starts to live in the kennel around 6 months, the stay command is further enforced by closing the door on the dog if he attempts to not stay. The e-collar is worn by the dog for a long time until he is unaware of it. I take the dog in the yard where the chickens are used as a distraction. When he goes to chase the chickens, I call him to “come” and if he does not come, he gets a strong correction from the e-collar. The dog learns that I as leader, have a very “long” arm and always the correction is coupled with my voice. I only need to use the e-collar one time. ”

Well, easy as one, two, three! We look forward to seeing Jos and Eboets at level 2 in the next year and wish them future success.