British versus American Honoring

Based on private correspondence with Alice Woodyard and Jody Baker, I thought I'd post about some concepts I had not previously understood about the kind of honoring required for British Field Trials versus the kind of honoring required for American Field Trials and Hunt Tests, which I'll contrast with the terms "British honoring" versus "American honoring".

In British honoring, a line of dogs watch a mark thrown and then one of them is released to pick up the mark at the discretion of the judge. Dogs who excel at this skill learn that they can never expect any particular mark to be for them, so they learn to chill and wait to see if their name is called. For retrievers bred for British Field Trials, their breeding makes British honoring easier than for the intense, even hyper-intense, dogs bred for American field events.

British honoring is never required by an American competitor. In an American field event, the dog runs a series, then moves to the side and watches the birds thrown for the next dog. A short time after the running dog is sent to the go-bird, the honoring dog is released to retire from the line, and that dog's series is complete.

As Alice has explained, this difference in honoring requirements has two implications. First, it means that the dog can learn that when it's time to honor, there is no possibility that the dog will be sent. In theory, the unambiguity of the honoring context makes American honoring easier than British honoring, and helps explain why steadiness isn't generally considered as much of a breeding or early training priority for the American event dog.

Secondly, the American format means that when the dog is running her series, she is able to put every ounce of her focus into the marks, because there is no chance some other dog will be sent. Compare that to the British style, where the overwhelming likelihood is that the dog will not be sent. No wonder dogs bred for American field competition can learn to run highly complex series, series that would be difficult or impossible if the dog's focus were diluted by having learned since puppyhood to chill when marks are being thrown. Here again, breeding is a factor. Part of the American event dog's breeding objective is for the dog to be able to bring that intensity to the start line to help solve whatever complexities the judges have dreamed up.

Of my two field Goldens, Laddie is easily the more intense in everyday life. But when Lumi's at the line with guns firing and birds being thrown, like Laddie she turns into a retrieving machine, all her energies bent on memorizing where each bird fell, every muscle coiled for the chase.

I doubt either of my dogs has the breeding ideal for British Field Trials. More importantly, it appears that practicing British honoring, in which the dog needs to relax because she probably will not be sent when marks are thrown, is actually counterproductive for Lumi's and Laddie's competitive careers. This means that it may have been a mistake to participate in the honoring drills that Dave suggested for us, both during our recent Sunday sessions together and in private sessions on our own, since those drills consisted of British honoring.