The Messenger Dog trial

Note added in February 2001: the rules have changed in 2000, the basic idea still remains the same though. This pages describes the old, pre-2000, rules.

Introduction

This form of canine competition is known in Finland and Scandinavia, and even though the details of the rules are slightly different in e.g. Finland and Sweden, the idea is essentially the same. I wrote this WWW-page because several foreign friends of mine wanted to know more about this trial.

I'm not aware of any formal translation of the name of this sport, so I use the descriptive translation "Messenger Dog", because the basic idea is that the dog runs a relatively long distance between two handlers to "deliver a message" (in his collar). In Swedish they call this "Rapporthund", which is probably also related to the history of this sport: in the old days the military dogs were used to deliver messages on the battlefield fast, quietly and unnoticed. Don't be surprised, however, if you meet Finns who call this form of canine competition by some other name as well, because the word that we use for it can be translated in several ways.

In the Messenger Dog trials, in addition to the actual "message delivery" part there is an obedience part which is taken on the same day, sometimes before and sometimes after the "message" part. In addition to these, in the Winner Class (Level 3) there is an Article Search (3 articles in a square of 50 metres x 50 metres, which the dog has to find and bring to the handler in 5 minutes). The requirements for the obedience exercises are as those of the IPO (International Pruefungsordnung) obedience, and here I will not go into the details of that.

General idea

For each dog there are 2 handlers, which I call H1 and H2. H1 stays on a location, Point A, pointed by the judge (all H1 of all the competing dogs), usually this takes place in a forest which may have some natural hiking paths or be full of vegetation.

All handlers H2 leave Point A and walk with their dog to Point B (dog heels on leash). Dogs are given a waiting position at Point B, where they are supposed to silently wait for their turn (their leash can be tied to a tree etc., the most important thing is that they don't bark or whine). Each handler H2 at his/her turn releases the dog, the dog heels 25 meters, is requested to stay still (sit or stand) for 30 seconds, after which he is sent to run back to Point A. The timing starts when the judge gives him the permission to run, and is suspended when the dog reaches H1.
Each dog is sent from point B to point A this way, the waiting time between each dog is 3 minutes.

When the dog reaches H1 at Point A, he is once again given a waiting position. Meanwhile the handlers H2 walk from Point B onward to Point C.

After a short waiting time, the dogs are sent again to run from Point A towards Point C -- the dog runs to Point B, realizes there is no one there and starts tracking, following the natural scent left by the handlers, to Point C. The timing continues when the dogs leaves H1 and is suspended when he reaches H2.

At Point C the dogs again wait for a while, and then they are once again sent back to Point A (now the dog needs to run the leg that he tracked plus the original leg from B to A).

At Level 1 the competition ends when the dog reaches Point A again, at Level 2 and Level 3 the dog (usually) has to run again from A to C and once again from C to A.

Levels of competition

Level 1

  A --- (H2 and dog walk) ---> B  533 meters (= ca. 1/3 miles)
  A <-- dog runs ------------- B  533 m
  A --- dog runs ------------> B --- dog tracks --> C  533 m + 200 m
  A <-- dog runs ------------- B ------------------ C  733 m

• The dog runs a total distance of 2 kilometers (1 1/4 miles). The ideal time for that is 6 minutes, which gives the total of 200 points. Points are reduced for extra time as well as faults like if the dog barks at the waiting points, doesn't heel properly with the handler, needs more than two commands to start running, etc.
• If the dog returns to the handler that sent him, or uses more than 12 minutes in total, he fails.

When the dog has at least once earned at least 150 points in the "message" part and at least 70 (out of 100) points in the obedience, he can start to compete at Level 2.

Level 2

  A --- (H2 and dog walk) ---> B  480 m
  A <-- dog runs ------------- B  480 m
  A --- dog runs ------------> B --- dog tracks --> C  480 + 400 m
  A <-- dog runs ------------- B ------------------ C  880 m
  A --- dog runs ---------------------------------> C  880 m
  A <-- dog runs ---------------------------------- C  880 m

• The dog runs a total distance of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). Points are given as at Level 1, except that the ideal time is 12 minutes and the time must not exceed 24 minutes.
• Sometimes this competition is also run through 3 legs only, in which case the distance between A and B is 1066 meters.

When the dog has at least once earned at least 150 points in the "message" part and at least 70 (out of 100) points in the obedience, he can start to compete at Level 3.

Level 3

  A --- (H2 and dog walk) ---> B  960 m
  A <-- dog runs ------------- B  960 m
  A --- dog runs ------------> B --- dog tracks --> C  960 + 800 m
  A <-- dog runs ------------- B ------------------ C  1760 m
  A --- dog runs ---------------------------------> C  1760 m
  A <-- dog runs ---------------------------------- C  1760 m

• The total distance now is 8 km (5 miles).
• The ideal time is 26 minutes, and must not exceed 46 minutes. The maximum points from the "message" part are now only 170 points (instead of the 200 in Levels 1+2), because there is the additional Article Search part (max 30 points) at this level.
• The competition is usually held in a very difficult landscape, with practically no paths, and with some hills etc.

Remarks

This form of competition is considered to be one of the most demanding dog sports by its fanciers, and one of the easiest by many fanciers of some other sports... Both of them have some reasons for that:
The dog practically "only needs to run", which is considered easy compared to SAR work, protection work, etc.
BUT..

• The dog really needs to be well motivated to run alone in the forest, without letting anything bother him -- he must not be distracted by the other dogs in the competition, any scents en route, wild animals, possible hikers etc. that he may encounter.
• The dog must be in an extremely good physical condition in order to make it to Level 3 and to there run the required 8 km in approximately half an hour.
• This competition is extremely hard in the sense that a dog may do perfectly well during the first four legs, but if he during the last one returns to the handler that sent him, or exceeds the time, it's automatically 0 points -- there is no "half success".

There are tons of funny, interesting, and even sad anecdotes from these competitions. It seems like almost anything can happen when you have a bunch of dogs running alone in the middle of a strange forest for miles and miles -- I have heard of dogs who have preferred to go swimming with their buddies, or who met some girl scouts in the forest and were fed so many cookies it was impossible for them to run any more, and so on...

More about messenger dogs: training and trials with photos!