International Ring Sport
French Ring Sport is a dog sport developed
in France about a century
ago for the improvement of the working breeds.
French Ring has 3
phases: Agility, Obedience, and Protection.
Many Americans are
familiar with the German sport of Schutzhund.
The French Ring is very
different from Schutzhund and equally as exciting.
French Ring Sport is the only dog sport in
the world in which the trial
decoy is an adversary to the dog rather than
his victim. The decoy
wears a full bite suit and a bite anywhere
on the body is legal.
However, unlike in other protection sports,
in the French Ring the decoy
is allowed to, no, rather it is expected of
him that he uses all of his
athletic ability, his knowledge of dogs, and
his force of character to
test the dogs which are sent against him.
While he functions according
to a strict set of rules which limit his behavior
and insure that he
cannot injure or be brutal with the dogs,
he is given the freedom of
action to explore the characters of the dogs
in a trial. If he can find
no deficiency in a dog's character which he
can exploit, then it is his
duty to find deficiencies in training, to
cause the dog to attack too
soon, or to excite him so much that he becomes
oblivious to his
handler's commands. In fact, his reputation
as a trial agitator depends
upon his skill in doing these things.
In French Ring there are 4 levels of difficulty:
Brevet (Beginning
Level), Ring I, Ring II, and Ring III (the
highest level). In the
Brevet there is no Agility and dogs can be
as young as 10 months old to
compete. Brevet level consists of Obedience
and Protection and the
exercises are always in the same order. In
Ring I - Ring III, the order
is Agility, Obedience, Protection with no
breaks between phases. For
these higher levels the order of individual
exercises is drawn by lot
for each trial. At Ring III, it is normal
for a dog to be working
non-stop for 45 minutes, which requires a
dog with a lot of heart,
endurance and trainability.
The agility exercises are very impressive.
At Ring III level, a dog
must scale a 8 foot vertical wall (Palisade),
jump a 15 foot broad jump,
and jump both ways over a hurdle to receive
full points in agility.
Obedience includes a send away, various retrieves,
refusal of food, and
a very difficult exercises in which the dog
must perform six changes of
position in random order (sit, down, stand)
at a distance of over 45
feet from his handler.
Protection includes some exercises, which are
completely unknown in
Schutzhund. For instance, the dogs are required
to perform a guard of
the object, which many experts feel is the
most difficult exercise in
the French Ring program. The handler is absent
from the Ring(Field),
the dog is left alone with an object and he
must, by biting, foil three
separate attempts by the decoy to steal the
object. he must not bite
before the agitator is with about 3 feet of
the object (to receive full
points), and he must automatically out and
return to the object when the
agitator gives up and walks away (attempting
to take the dog with him,
and thereby costing the handler many points).
French Ring also features
a unique protection of the handler exercise
and a very difficult stopped
attack. In fact, the most amazing thing about
the French sport is not
the gladiator-like role of the agitator, but
the astounding control
which is expected of the dogs in bite-work.
The term "sport" has been in use for more
than 160 years. The original
meaning assumes not the physical character
acquainted with the meaning
of sport today. The original meaning rather
incorporates the idea of
entertainment in playing the game. By engaging
in French Ring Sport,
one can attribute the favorable behavior of:
clean exercise,
competition, intense entertainment, performance,
and retreat. French
Ring always exists to measure dogs' character
through competition and
for breed selection in order to breed dogs
with desirable
characteristics. The French Ring Sport does
not harm the healthy
character and true meaning of "sport", (the
animated contest between dog
and decoy is utilized to discover the better
example of the breed),
which is the requirement.
Today perhaps the working demands we request
of our dogs are
declining. In return, dog sports seem to have
growing popularity
comparable to the growth of human sports.
It permits the nurturing of
the linkage of dog and handler as a team and
exercises different
disciplines that keep in touch with the athletic
capacities and directs
the continual improvement of aptitudes of
the chosen breed.
French Ring Sport is a relatively new dog sport
in the United States.
Introduced to North America in 1986, it has
been attracting a great deal
of interest in the dog sport community. There
are an ever growing
number of training clubs and trials per year.
The NORTH AMERICAN RING
ASSOCIATION (N.A.R.A.) is the governing organization
for the United
States. N.A.R.A. is governed by the French
S.C.C. (Societe Central
Canine) and the titles and scorebooks are
recognized Internationally.
We urge all interested in learning more about
French Ring Sport to
become a NARA member and begin receiving the
NARA Newsletter to learn
more about Ring and clubs and activities in
your region.
Disclaimer: Please note. This page was put up for the membership of N.A.R.A members. It is not the "official" N.A.R.A. website that will deal with all the political things happening. That URL will be posted when available. The "mission" of this page is to help publicize Ring Sport in North America,to help clubs,and to educate the public on this great sport.
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