Natural Abilities
Teaching and Training to Honor

Natural Abilities

Every dog should start off with a natural ability to stop and respect another dog on point. Often times we see these abilities at an early age and they disappear over time without cultivating and reinforcing of the individual dog.

 

Teaching and Training to Honor

We feel if a dog is derived from trait selection using honoring as a priority with parents that honor naturally, you can quickly bring out this trait with the proper introduction. We build on these heritable responses in our training program after a dog has been taught to be steady to the flush (or stop to flush). We teach the dog that they must stop on contact of another dog standing still on point. We use two launchers and a steady dog or backing silhouette (woody). We lead the dog with a check cord around an objective to the pointing dog, and launch the first bird when eye contact is made. It is easier to have two people while doing this part of the training. The second bird is launched after the backing dog has stopped and the second handler moves toward the pointing dog. We repeat the same set up to three times in a row. Often times you will notice the backing dog looking for the pointing dog and creeping before the eye contact is made. This is when you know you have correctly exposed the backing dog properly.

It is very important to keep this positive and rewarding to the honoring dog. We will give retrieves to reward if the correct process was achieved. If the training or teaching becomes negative, you will create a dog that will blink a pointing or standing dog. Only resort to forcing the backing situation when the non-natural ability, selfish or alpha dominance occurs.