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cwalt

MH
Posts:180

07/08/2007 12:12 PM
Backing is a behavior that occurs when two or more bird dogs are searching. The idea behind backing is that when one dog finds and points a bird the other dog(s) in the field note this and stay away from the pointing dog. This falls under the general category of manners on game and is absolutely necessary to keep dogs from interfering with each other in bird finding. When each dog is intent on locating a scent source and ignores other dogs they will of necessity interfere with each other. and some form of backing or honoring is necessary. Honoring is a natural behavior exhibited by some bird dogs, they stop and stand where they are and are more or less intent on the pointing dog. Backing is the trained behavior that prevents interference between dogs in the field. Each backing dog is trained to stop and stand as soon as it sees another dog standing still or on point. We soon learn, when hunting braces, that interference between two dogs on one bird reduces productivity dramatically and, in many cases, results in a lot of bird finds without any successful shots because the crowding of the dogs flushes the birds. Field trialers prefer to have backing dogs display some of the intensity of naturally honoring dogs and therefore attempt to train the backing with birds on the assumption that a whiff of scent will give the standing dog a measure of intensity. This form of training with birds is seemingly logical and occasionally yields pretty looking backing dogs but more often it leads to intense competition between dogs for that scent plume. Cj

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