0:31 Announcer: Gundogsonline.com helping you get the most from your hunting dog.

0:36 [sound of walking through the grass]

0:45 Surprised you, didn't it? That was my goal. Hi, I'm Jennifer Broome with Quinebaug Kennels here in Canterbury, Connecticut. And today we're doing honoring or backing drills with our pointing dogs. When I use by Buster the backing board here, it's exactly the element I'm trying to create, that element of surprise,  just like you came around the corner and saw this white dog standing here.

1:09 I find that using a backing board like this is a very cost effective way to begin some honoring drills with our young dogs. Once you begin this drill, it's typically a drill that I can only do two or three times because the dogs, what I call, get pretty savvy or used to this backing board and then they sort of lose the honor or the respect for it.

A backing board allows me to come around a corner with the dog, have this element of surprise and see what their reaction is. Often, they freeze just out of surprise. And I like that. That's what I'm looking for. If I can then bring in my whoa command, which we've taught plenty of times in the yard situation, I can help to further teach and reinforce that when they do see another dog standing here, they freeze, they whoa, they honor and I can gently reinforce with my whoa command.

2:02 I've found that about 50% of the dogs that come through my facility, pointing dogs will naturally or honor genetically. That means that when they see a dog on point, they genetically freeze even though they may not know what they're doing. And honoring is a dog coming up to another dog on point and upon the instant sight of that dog, they stop and they honor that dog pointing that bird. We don't want them to smell the bird. We don't want them to come in on the dog and steal its bird. We ant them to respect that pointing dog on point.

2:35 So utilizing a bright backing board like this around a piece of cover, can allow me to bring a pup up on leash, create that element of surprise, see what their initial reaction is and then help to enhance and reinforce that reaction with the whoa command. Once I get that reaction and I've taught them on one or two repetitions of it, I actually will move on to a trained dog and have that youngster then honor a trained dog. Because again, I feel the dogs just get a little bored eventually with this backing drill.

3:08 So let's take a dog and see what it's reaction might be. Maybe we'll take a couple dogs. We'll try our young Brittany Spaniel and I haven't done this drill with her. So it would be interesting to see what her reaction would be coming around the corner when she sees this dog. She could bark at it. She could turn and run away. Or she might just freeze. But this will give me an idea of what her genetic reaction is to another dog on point. Will she respect it? Or are we going to have to nurture that and really teach her the whoa command as an honor.

So backing board, cost effective way to see a puppy's initial reaction and a great way to practice tuning your dog up before the season on the honor drills. Let's get going.

3:56 Whoa. Good. Good. Whoa. I actually like that response I had because I felt she saw it and while she is looking around I was able to use my e-collar to reinforce the drill that we practiced a whole bunch in the yard situation, the whoa command. Whoa.  I might go over to my dog. Good. Whoa. And if you bring the camera back and look at her, she's pretty intent now on studying this dog. Ears are up. Whoa. Good.

So this is the way I could take the genetic response to honor that many of our pointing dogs have and nurture that genetic response with the training of a whoa command to help to reinforce the honoring of our dogs on point. I think that for her first time ever doing this we were able to catch that element of surprise. It was a fantastic drill with her. And I could do this with Freedom here maybe a couple more times. But then we'll go ahead and move on to a trained dog that will be on point and she can honor that trained dog. Good girl.

5:10 [Closing]

5:33 Announcer: Gundogsonline.com helping you get the most from your hunting dog.