Luna’s Mehrkampf

A Mehrkampf in German is the equivalent to a pentathlon or some such, except as opposed to such athletic events, this one is “supposed” to be just for fun. The Swiss have 2 kinds of “obedience”. One is called called Obedience and I suppose it conforms to all the rules of classic obedience contests.

The other type is called “Begleithund” and translates as “accompaniment dog”. Doesn’t help much, huh? Begleithund is divided into 3 levels. As reported earlier, Luna did her level ones in 2001. Since then she’s also started Search & Rescue and has been enjoying training for her Level II Begleithund tests. The normal Begleithund tests include several series of tests including more complicated tracking than Begleithund I. A Mehrkampf includes all of the normal tests -except- the tracking and the point result is also not entered in her record book. It’s a good way for owner and dog to see just how far they are in a low-stress situation, before entering a real test where it does count.

On June 2, 2002 in Muttenz, which is a suburb of Basel, Luna and I entered a Mehrkampf – just for fun in Level II. She was ready in some aspects, shaky in others and I was just plain curious. My wife came along for moral support.

It was a very hot day, around 87 degrees Fahrenheit and it was not easy keeping cool as all the other entrants went before us. We were in the last group to be tested. The first series of tests included:

1a. On-lead, walking an Z-pattern without commands for changes of directions. Luna did this so-so. She kept looking over her shoulder at my wife in the crowd, so I had to give the leash a couple of twangs to get her attention.

1b On-lead, walking up and down and changing tempo. Commands allowed for tempo changes. No problems.

2a Same as 1a but without leash. Same problem as 1a.

2b Same as 1b but without leash. This she did well, except at the very end, when the exercise was actually over, instead of obeying the command to sit, she went over to the judge, sat down in front of -him- and begged a goody from him!!! But she came right back over to me, so her just gave her a big grin and took off no points (g).

3 From the sit position I give the command to lay down and then sit again. Then I called her to the front and from the front position once again lay down and sit. Then upon command she had to bark at least 3 times. All done perfectly.

4 Next was to apport in 2 directions which she also did well.

5 All dogs are set on a line about 5 yards apart and must stay in the laying down position for 10 minutes while the owners are out of sight. At one point, Luna sat up and leisurely scratched an itch, but since she lay right down again, there was no minus point.

Total of 83 out of 100 points. Generous, considering that she did not follow so well, while looking at my wife.

6 Walking perpendicular to a high jump, I had to give a command to “wait!” and Luna must stay still while I continued on. She always takes 2 baby steps after the command. Then I continued for about 10 yards, turned around, waited a few seconds and picked her up, so to speak. Lost a couple of points there for the baby steps.

7 Then I stopped with her together and told her to sit and wait. I walked back to the starting point and with out turning around, called for her to come from behind my back into the front position. The last couple of weeks before the test, she seemed to have forgotten this exercise, but did it perfectly this time.

[6 and 7 above brought the two of us from about 15 yards in front of the high jump (offset by about 5 yards) to about 15 yards past the high jump and back again.]

8 From the starting point of number 6 I sent Luna running ahead without me and after about 20 yards, but in any case after the high jump I called her into the laying down position. In training this only worked if I first marched off the route and/or threw a toy along the route. When I marched off the route, I realized she was following my scent, because she would only go as far as I’d gone. If I did not first march off the route or throw a toy, she would only go a couple of feet, turn around and look at me with a “…and now what?…” look on her face. But since we’d both marched off the exact route during the exercises 6 and 7, I sent her on her way and it worked like a charm. She ran and just where we’d turned around, I called her to lay down and she went down like she’d been pole-axed. Then I walked up to her, then walked her over the 5 yards to the same level as the high jump, told her to wait, went along past the high jump and then called her over the high jump, which she did perfectly.

9 We then went back to the high jump and while both standing on one side of it, I sent her over the high jump, told her to wait and then brought her back. Perfect.

For this section she got 93 out of 100 points for a total of 176 out of a possible 200 points

This was a regional Mehrkampf and we came in 6th out of 16. We had a real bit of luck the way 6 and 7 went, that they set us up for 8, though, so we have some work to do. The next Mehrkampf Luna is taking part in is on August 31, 2002 and we are setting her back to Level I so solidify a few things, but also because my wife will be doing it with her. She has to do a full Level I Begleithund test including the tracking in order to be able to take part in the Search & Rescue tests next season. But more on that here.