Mark is a retired competition French Ring/Mondio Ring certified trial decoy.  Mark has officiated over 30 trials as a decoy under primarily French Judges, including a regional selective.  In 2007, Mark competed in the North American Ring Association Decoy Super Selection.  Mark took first place amongst the American Decoys earning the honor of the Decoy of the Year award, and the Golden Baton award.

As a handler, Mark has handled two dogs in French Ring.  A Dutch Shepherd/German Shepherd cross named Kalib, whom he brought to the Ring I level, and a Belgian Malinois named Lot whom he brought to the Ring III level.  In June of 2008, Mark and Lot set a record for highest score to that date in Ring II history with a score of 292.8 out of 300 under French Judge Philippe Touy.  

As a coach and training decoy, Mark has brought several dog/handler teams to title in Ring.  To date, Mark has trained all of the bitework, and coached the obedience and jumping of the following dogs:

• Lot du Loups du Soleil- Belgian Malinois male - Ring III
• Victory du champs des Legendes - Belgian Malinois female - Ring III
• Red Star DangerMouse - Belgian Malinois male - Ring II 
• Red Star Deja Nira - Belgian Malinois female - Ring III (Coached until Ring II)
• Red Star Destin - Belgian Malinois male - Brevet
• Briarlea’s Luna - Bouvier des Flandres female - Ring II
• Red Star Jetta - Presa Canario female - Brevet
• Red Star Lutij - Presa Canario male - Ring I
• Gargoyle’s Loki - Renascence Bulldog male - Brevet
• Patriot’s Dragon - Renascence Bulldog male - Brevet
• Kalib - DS/GSD mix - Ring I
• Java - Boxer female - Ring I (Coached until brevet)

As a general dog trainer, Mark has been assisting dogs and handlers in the midwest since 1998.  From teaching group obedience classes, to behavior modification, Mark has worked with over 1000 dogs to date.  Since 2004, Mark has been training exclusively at Red Star Kennel, in Hudson Wisconsin.  Mark teaches private lessons in obedience, behavior problems and modification, competition preparation, sport style obedience, agility, and protection work, puppy imprinting and socialization, puppy/dog purchase consulting, in home lessons and search work.

Mark has taught numerous seminars across the US in sport style bitework in sports such as French Ring, Mondio Ring, PSA, and Schutzhund.  Mark has also conducted seminars with with Police Departments teaching handlers how to not only work each others dogs, but communicate more clearly with their own dogs.  Mark has also taught seminars in drive cultivation and channeling for State, as well as FIMA certified Search and Rescue teams.