Course Details
3 WEEK CLASS - Could your dog stay in a down while someone drops food right in front of them, or even between their feet?
Food refusal is one of those sport exercises that looks almost like a magic trick when it’s done well. In Mondioring, dogs may be asked to remain in position while food is presented in increasingly creative ways, sometimes while the handler is at a distance or completely out of sight.
In this 3-week class, we’ll break that finished behavior into achievable pieces. We’ll first build the food-refusal picture without food, then add food and systematically increase the challenge through proximity, value, movement, and presentation. Finally, we’ll build greater handler independence and explore creative proofing challenges.
The goal isn’t to repeatedly tell your dog to “leave it.” We want your dog to understand: stay in the behavior you were given, even when something very tempting happens around you.
No Mondioring experience is required. If teaching your dog to ignore a hamburger tossed at their feet sounds like your idea of a good training challenge, this class is for you!
Prerequisite: A basic down and approximately five seconds of stay in a familiar, low-distraction environment. Short pre-class foundation material will be provided.
Teaching Approach:
Lectures will be released on a weekly basis, with three lectures released together at the beginning of each week. Each week will focus on a specific stage of developing the food refusal, with the lectures breaking the training into manageable pieces and building progressively on the skills introduced previously.
Training will have clear criteria, thoughtful progression, and setting the dog up for successful repetitions. Video demonstrations will be included throughout the lectures to show both individual training steps and how those pieces develop toward the finished food-refusal picture.
Weekly assignments will be clear and goal-oriented, while allowing teams to work at a level appropriate for their individual dog. Because food value, stay experience, handler independence, and response to distractions will vary considerably between dogs, progression through the exercises does not need to look identical for every team.
Feedback on video submissions will use a combination of written feedback and voice-over video feedback. Feedback will focus on training mechanics, criteria, reinforcement, setup choices, and identifying the most appropriate next step for each team.
