The 3 biggest misconceptions about Honoring & the 2 training tricks that really work!

Honoring is hard for nearly everyone, whether you're a positive trainer or not. It's one of the many challenges in Retriever tests that pull on your dog's instinctual drives.

And not just one instinctual drive, but two. Our honor dog is watching another dog's birds land - triggering the chase instinct. And second, he's watching another dog run to get them - triggering the drive to compete for that resource!

What makes it even harder to succeed in honoring? Not getting rewarded with anything close to what your dog just missed out on! How does that set you up for the next time you honor?

What do positive trainer's do to overcome this?

The answer is in how we see what the honor behavior chain really is. And by building an amazing Reward Sequence that we can even use at a real test. 

Below we will look at that approach and how to build a reward sequence that works. But first, let's bust the 3 biggest misconceptions.

Misconception #1

"My dog is really steady for marking, so she will /should be really steady for the honor. "

The Truth - Our positive dogs are steady to the marks because that steadiness is rewarded quickly with a release to go get those marks. If we train steadiness well, the release cue is like a click. The dog gets it that their behavior earns the release to go. As a result, the act of steadiness for marks is rewarding - because it gets rewarded with the mark. 

That's not what's happening in an honor. The dog does not get rewarded for honoring by being released to the marks. In fact, if we don't teach honoring well, the dog learns they will never get rewarded for honoring - at least not with what they want. 

This is why teaching a Reward Sequence is critical.

Misconception #2

"To get my dog to honor, I need to teach her that these marks are NOT hers! And that it's NOT her turn!"

The Truth - As positive trainers, we get great behaviors and great proofing against temptations when the dog knows they will get rewarded for that cued behavior.
So instead of teaching our dog what is NOT, we teach them what is the correct behavior  when faced with the temptations in an honor performance. Making sure they know that a reward is coming - even if it's much later and much farther away from the line.

The most powerful thing we can teach our dog about Honoring is what to expect in terms of the temptations caused by the working team - and how to react to each of those temptations in a way that leads to the reward sequence. 

Having another dog bolt for the birds is a huge temptation. We can easily proof that steadiness with small layers that build up to that level of resilience.

Misconception #3

"There's no way to reward my dog for honoring. She won't take treats when we're in the field, she is too excited. So we just practice lots of denials. And hope it all goes well, when we go to a test."

The truth - Yes, I get that! Super common for dogs to ignore food when surrounded by the excitement of the atmosphere. 

Putting a dog in the hot seat of instinctual arousal doesn't make it easier to teach them a control behavior with food rewards. 

What does work, is teaching the behaviors and the temptations on a small scale at home, first. You can build the whole game of honoring at home. The dog learns what the sequence of behaviors are AND what the sequence of temptations are. 

With the right technique, it becomes a rewarding game! And because your dog knows the game and what's about to happen, it's much easier for him to take the treats - even in the field. 

But we're not just using treats! It's critical to start using bumpers, birds or toys with the same level of value as the marks in the field. 

The Approach

Let's look at our +R approach to teaching the Honor sequence. And how the reward sequence works to proof it.

It's a behavior chain... of temptations.

If you look at the honor as a behavior chain with predictable sequences, it makes it a lot easier to train!

What's funny is there's really only a couple of actual behaviors: moving to the honor station, sitting at heel and pivoting at heel to leave the line. What's challenging is the long sequence of temptations that happen to test the dog's steadiness.

Here's what it looks like: Your dog gets her double or triple marks, delivering the last bird to hand. Then you move to the side a couple of yards. You cue your dog to heel and sit.  You may be sitting there for several minutes. Then the other dog and handler walk by you up to the line. [temptation #1] Your dog is looking out at where she just saw gunners shoot her birds. 

Suddenly, those same guns start going off and birds start landing! Wow! [temptation #2].

The adrenalin is pumping! "Do I go again?" your dog asks. Right then, the other dog blasts off the line running to the birds! [Temptation #3] 

Now the judge excuses you.  You cue your dog to pivot away from those marks to heel off line and leave. [Temptation #4]

So you can see, the training is going to be more about teaching your dog how to withstand these temptations. Our process does that in fun easy layers that build amazing clarity and success for your dog. 

A big part of it, is teaching your dog that an honor is a performance with a cue that let's them know what's about to happen. Plus, giving them the experience to know that being steady to these distractions WILL EARN A REWARD sequence afterward. 

The Reward Sequence

It all starts at home, as we use steadiness games to introduce the temptations they will face in the field. At home, in our games, it's easy to use treats to reward the dog. Crate games is a huge help in this process!

The key is: the reward behind you must be of equal or greater value to the thing they are missing out on to the working dog.

 

So if the working dog is getting a bird, you want to put a bird behind you as the reward for your honor dog.

But wouldn't that make my dog go to the bird rack at a test, and just grab one of those birds? Or grab whatever is on the ground by the judges???

 

No, we're not done yet! We'll be extending our reward sequence in distance and time to give you plenty of room to get well behind the judges and the gallery before you reward your dog at a test!

Plus, I would hope that your foundation training gave your dog the ability to only pick up a bird or reward when given a release cue to do so.

Part of building this reward sequence is waiting for the release word to get the reward. So as we go, we will add in duration and distance, before releasing the dog to be rewarded.

In training, we can set our bird or toy further and further back behind us, and add in behaviors to our sequence. It may look like this:

• Steady for the working dog and release by judge

• Pivot at heel and start walking at heel for increasing distances. Stop, focus on the reward placement and release your dog to it. Have a party, with it, perhaps tossing it for a retrieve, or play tug with a tug toy. Then end the game with a food reward.

 

 

Once we condition the dog to the behavior chain and the reward sequence, the dog knows the game! And we still have control, because that's part of the game! The game becomes rewarding in and of itself!

 

At that point, we can easily decrease our reward value at the test. We don't need to place a reward bird behind us to walk to. Instead, we can simply reach our destination, stop and release the dog to play a game of tug with our leash, with a toy in our pocket, or toss a ball for a fun retrieve. Well behind the judges and gallery!