Teaching Your Epagneul Breton to Honor

Teaching Your Epagneul Breton to Honor

Picture a morning hunt with a friend. His dog locks up on point fifty yards ahead in the brush. Your Epagneul Breton spots the other dog, and in that instant everything comes down to training. A finished gun dog stops where he stands, honors the other dog point, and waits for his turn. An unfinished dog charges in, crowds the point, and flushes the bird before anyone gets a shot. The difference is manners, and honoring is one of the most useful manners a hunting dog can learn.

Hunting rarely happens alone. You hunt with friends, you run two dogs as a brace, you share a field with strangers at a club or a trial. Sooner or later your dog will come across another dog standing on point, and what he does in that moment says a lot about his training.

What Honoring Really Means

Honoring, also called backing, is simple to describe. When one dog is on point, a second dog stops and points the first dog instead of pushing in on the bird. The honoring dog holds his position until he is released, even through the flush, the shot, and the retrieve. He does not need to smell the bird himself. The sight of the other dog standing staunch is the cue.

In a field trial, a dog that runs in and takes the point for himself is said to steal a point, and it can cost him his placement or get him picked up. In a hunting party the cost is simpler and more immediate: a flushed bird, a missed opportunity, and a hunting partner who may not invite you back.

Many Epagneul Bretons show a natural tendency to back. Watch puppies at play and you will see it. One pup stops suddenly, and the pup behind him stops too, if only for a second. Training takes that flash of instinct and turns it into a reliable habit.

Why It Matters in the Field

The first reason is safety. A dog that honors stays where he is, out of the way and out of the line of fire, while the handler walks in on the bird. A dog that crowds a point puts himself in front of a gun at the exact moment everyone is focused on the flush.

The second reason is simple courtesy. Birds belong to the dog that found them. A dog that honors lets his bracemate finish the work, and the favor is returned when the roles reverse. Two dogs that honor each other cover more ground and find more birds than two dogs competing for every point.

The third reason is opportunity. A dog that honors is a dog you can hunt anywhere, with anyone, in any company. Field trials require it. Guided hunts expect it. Hunting partners remember it. It is one of the marks of a finished dog.

The Foundation Comes First

Honoring is built on whoa. If whoa is not reliable on its own, honoring will not be reliable either. Before you start, your dog should hold whoa through a flush, at distance, and without a hand on the check cord. If he still needs help holding still, go back and finish that work first. Honoring asks for the same response you already built in yard work. The command is old. Only the trigger is new.

Your dog should also be fully developed to the gun before honoring work begins, because training setups include a blank gun at the flush. A dog that is still nervous around gunfire will associate that worry with another dog point, which is the opposite of what you want.

You will need a helper and a second dog that is already steady, one that will hold a point reliably while a young dog approaches. Borrow a finished dog if you need to. If no steady dog is available, a plywood pointing dog silhouette or a remote controlled backing dog can stand in for the first stage of training.

Teaching the Honor in Stages

Stage one uses a silhouette. Set it in a spot concealed from the main part of your training field, behind brush or a stand of trees, facing the direction a real dog would face. Plant a bird in a launcher about fifteen feet in front of it. Work your dog into the field on a check cord, coming in from upwind so he cannot catch scent from the hidden bird. The honor should be a sight reaction, not a scent reaction.

Watch your dog closely. The first moment he sees the silhouette, he will probably hesitate, even if it is only a split second. That is your moment. Stop him gently and whoa him. Have your helper flush the bird and fire the blank gun while your dog holds. Then heel him away from the area. Never let him run up to the silhouette or sniff it. Always keep him at a distance during these exercises.

Repeat several times a week, varying the location so the dog does not learn a pattern. You are aiming for the moment he stops on his own when he sees the other dog, and stays calm and steady while the bird flushes and the gun fires.

Stage two uses a live dog. Plant a bird in the field and have your helper work the steady dog into it first. Give the first dog time to go on point, then bring your dog into the field on the check cord, approaching from an angle where he can see the other dog clearly. The instant your dog notices the point, whoa him. Flush the bird, fire the blank gun, and let the other dog handle the retrieve while yours holds his honor. Reset him calmly if he creeps forward. Keep sessions short and end on a success.

Stage three is distance and repetition. Once your dog honors reliably with you close enough to correct by hand, gradually drop the check cord and increase the distance. An e collar can back up the same correction at real hunting distance, but only after the hand correction is solid, and only at the exact moment the dog starts to break. Run the setup often enough that honoring becomes automatic, not situational.

Stage four is the release. Teach a clear release word and use it every time, so the dog learns that the honor ends when you say so, not when he decides the excitement is over. A dog that holds until released is a dog you can trust in any company.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Starting before whoa is solid is the most common error. Every other problem in honoring traces back to a foundation that was not finished.

Letting the dog crowd in just once is another. Dogs learn from every repetition, including the bad ones. If you allow a creep or a break because it is only a training bird, you have trained the dog to creep and break.

Training in the same spot every time creates a pattern. The dog learns the location, not the lesson. Move the setup, change the approach, and keep the dog guessing.

Using a bracemate that is not steady ruins the exercise. If the first dog breaks, your dog learns that breaking is what dogs do. Only work with a finished dog for this training.

Correcting late is nearly as bad as not correcting at all. The correction has to land at the moment the dog starts to move, not after he is already halfway to the point. Timing is the whole job here.

Skipping the flush and shot in training leaves a hole in the picture. A dog that only honors a quiet, still scene may fall apart when wings beat and a gun fires. Build the full sequence into every repetition.

From the Training Field to Wild Birds

Wild birds add everything a planted bird does not: running birds, shifting scent, rough cover, and other dogs moving in the same field. Keep your expectations realistic the first season. A young dog that honors beautifully on planted birds may still break on a wild covey, and that is normal.

If he breaks in the field, do not try to fix it in the heat of the hunt. Go back to controlled setups, rebuild the habit, and return to wild birds when the work is solid again. Patience here pays for years. A dog that learns to honor young will honor for life.

A Dog You Can Hunt Anywhere

An Epagneul Breton that honors is a pleasure to hunt behind. He finds his own birds, respects the birds his bracemate finds, and stays safe and steady while the shooting happens. That is not a small thing. It is the difference between a dog that works for himself and a dog that works as part of a team.

If you are working through this stage with a young dog, take it slow and build it right. The training is straightforward, the payoff is a lifetime of good manners in the field, and the dog you end up with is one any hunting partner is glad to share a field with.