If LoCO were to tell you that the reigning mondioring national champion lived here in Humboldt, we would not fault you if you responded “What the hell is ‘mondioring’?”

Glad you asked. Mondioring is a sport combining a number of various dog training disciplines. Hurdling, retrieving, guarding and various other canine accomplishable acts are all aspects of mondioring competitions. Basically, all of the things you think of a dog being able to be trained to do combined. If you need to know more about this, click here.

Team Z, the Humboldt-based mondioring team of Maya Conrad (human) and Zorro del Sol y Noche (dog), have won three consecutive USMRA National Championships (2013-15). Nice! OK! Now they’re angling to make the trip to Vendenheim, France next month to train to compete at the 2015 Mondioring World Championships in October and they’ve set up a GoFundMe page in the hopes of subsidizing their efforts (well, Zorro probably didn’t help with the page, though, who knows. Apparently he’s good at stuff.)

From Conrad’s GoFundMe:

Zorro and I will travel to France in September to prepare with a professional trainer. Mondioring is one of the hardest dogsports on the planet. We spend hours and hours training and, as many ringsport people say, “it takes a village to train a mondioring dog.” My estimated costs for the championship are $6500, which includes Zorro and my airfare, lodging, van rental, training, food, supplies and veterinarian certification. I am humbly trying to raise $5000 to help cover my costs.

According to Conrad, this is the first time the United States is fielding a full team to compete at the Mondioring World Championships. Watch Conrad’s pitch video above and, if you feel the urge to contribute to her and Zorro’s journey, click over to her GoFundMe page.