Eldon Hongo loves to hunt fowl, but he didn’t love trying to find the downed birds in a tangled thicket.
“I was losing quite a few birds in that cover,” the Cheyenne-area told Cowboy State Daily. “It was so thick, I just couldn’t find them.”
It felt unethical to Hongo to lose any wounded birds. The only right thing to do about it, he decided, was find himself a bird dog. That way he wouldn’t leave birds behind to suffer and die.
It was a small decision in the scheme of things, just something to make his hunting a little more effective, a little more humane.
But that moment proved to be a turning point in his mid-30s life, one that would open unexpected doors to a career training champion bird dogs.
“I bought this young puppy from a renowned breeder from Germany who lived in the Southern California area,” he said. “And after I had trained it up, she invited me to come out for, like, customer puppy days.”
The day was all about fun and celebration. The owner even set out some birds for the young, newly trained dogs to find.
Hongo was proud of his dog’s performance, but he didn’t expect what came next.
The trainer told Hongo he should be competing, then she hired him on the spot to help her train bird dogs.
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Leap Of Faith From Six Figures To $12K
Hongo was excited about his new side gig.
“I’d always had an affinity for dogs,” he said. “I just never wanted to mistreat them or anything. I just wanted to enjoy their presence and their company. They’re a lot easier to get along with sometimes than some people.”
He was excited, but he didn’t quit his day job. At least not at first.
Each dog he trained seemed to bring two more customers his way. Pretty soon, he couldn’t keep up and something had to give.
In sales, he made six-figures a year, but there was just something about training these dogs that was deeply satisfying.
He decided to take the leap and quit that well-paying day job and hung out his first Hongo Bird Dogs shingle.
“That first year, I think I made, like, $12,000,” Hongo said, laughing. “It was crazy.”
But with his unusual approaches that honor the dog’s true nature first and foremost, Hongo had soon built a business that not only paid his bills, it was feeding something deeper he hadn’t realized he’d been missing.
“This is my purpose,” Hongo said. “I feel responsible, because I have something I can share that people are in need of — a better way to train and handle dogs, without having to be a caveman about it.”
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
A Champion’s Life On Horseback
Hongo lives off the beaten path in Wyoming in the Happy Valley community just west of Cheyenne. He has an unassuming demeanor as well.
No one would guess, without being told, that this dog trainer has 17 national champions to his credit, more than 50 American Kennel Club field champions, and more than 150 champions and runners-up on the record books with his favorite breed, German short-haired pointers.
The awards have come from National German Shorthaired Pointer Association, the AKC German Shorthaired Pointer National Championships, and the National German Pointing Dog Association.
Before retiring from these kinds of competitions, Hongo was also Purina Pro Handler of the Year seven times running, while one of his customers, Hayley Killam, was Amateur Handler of the Year six times. Both were records at the time.
“I think the most anybody else had won was twice in a row at the time,” Hongo said. “And then I came along and won it six, seven times in a row.”
Hongo is particularly proud of these awards, not least because they were all won while on horseback.
That’s one of the things that makes these competitions so difficult. The contestants not only have to expertly handle their dogs, but their horses as well.
The competition, including one with Hongo in it, can be seen on the Outdoor Channel, which filmed the national championships in 2001.
“It takes an athletic person to be effective as a handler,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to ride, you’ve got to be able to see the dog from that distance, and there’s a lot going on so you’ve got to be able to multitask.”
Eventually, Hongo and his wife, Terry, who competed with him, decided it was time to retire and focus on other things in life. Like their restaurant, the Bunkhouse Bar & Grill, west of Cheyenne.
“It’s all-consuming, that field-travel lifestyle,” Hongo said. “It’s literally all you do. There’s no time for anything else. It’s a total commitment, which is why there are not too many people doing it.”
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Hollywood Starlets To Oilmen
Hongo still trains lots of dogs of all breeds for people in all walks of life.
He’s trained actress Gina Davis and her poodle, for example, as well as wealthy oilmen out of Texas who, Hongo said, flew him all over the country in a private jet.
Davis showed up for her training with a movie director and a convertible Mercedes Benz, Hongo said, and it didn’t take long at all for the dog’s hair to become an absolute mess.
The dog picked up all sorts of stickers and brambles while training, and the wind was knotting everything up.
“What am I going to do?” Davis asked Hongo, fearing her dog wasn’t going to work for any future hunting trips.
“Well, you use that nonstick cooking spray called Pam,” he recalled telling her. “Spray that on before you go out into the field. Then you can brush out all that sticker stuff a lot easier.
“And if the dog is no good,” Hongo added with a chuckle, “you can just cook and eat him.”
Davis thought that was the funniest thing, Hongo said.
“She laughed and cackled like a chicken,” he said.
Davis found Hongo because of all the national championships he’d won.
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Eldon Hongo quit a six-figure career to do what he really loves — training bird dogs — and made just $12,000 his first year. Now the Cheyenne-area trainer’s resume includes 17 national champion bird dogs and a reputation as the best in the business. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Training Dogs Is The Easy Part
All his national championships aside, Hongo is quick to point out that the dogs are often the easy part of the whole training.
People, on the other hand, have more escape routes and excuses than any dog could ever hope to think up.
“I have heard it all,” Hongo said. “Sometimes they just don’t listen. They don’t comprehend, and sometimes they just don’t want to. They get distracted a lot easier than a dog. Their focus is not continual.”
Dogs, on the other hand, really love birds. As long as the trainer works with that, success is easy.
“It’s all they want to do at that moment,” Hongo said about retrieving birds. “In the field, a human being, the phone rings, a message beeps, or something goes on, whatever. It’s just a little more challenging.”
Hongo has sometimes offered his human students a single ear plug to help them focus.
“It goes on their other ear so that when I talk to them, it goes in one ear and stops on the other side,” Hongo said, chuckling a little bit. “I always say the most important piece of training equipment an amateur can possess is 6 inches of duct tape, and it goes right over your mouth.”
For all the joking, Hongo attracts a fair share of people who are already expert dog trainers who want to learn from someone better than themselves.
Brent Carpenter, for example, has been training dogs since he was very young, but he’s learned a lot of new strategies from Hongo that makes Hongo seem like a wizard when it comes to bird dogs.
“He won’t like give up,” Carpenter added. “Like the dog this morning, that dog wouldn’t even point, it wouldn’t even hunt.”
In fact, its owner had returned the dog, claiming it was untrainable.
“In two weeks, Eldon has that dog pointing,” he said. “He’s just so consistent with what he wants to get done for any one training period.”
One Moment That Says It All
Hongo has had many memorable moments over a 30-plus year career training bird dogs, and he expects there are more memories to come.
There’s one particular memory that means the world to him and illustrates what his unlikely career of choice has ultimately been all about.
“I trained this dog for a man in Palm Springs, and it was a young dog at the time when I trained him, probably 2 years old,” Hongo said. “Several years passed and this stranger came up to me at a field trial competition and says, ‘You trained this man’s dog,’ and he gave me the guy’s name.”
Hongo had to think a minute, but soon recalled the man, as well as the dog, whom he had trained eight years before.
The dog’s owner had passed away not long ago and the new owner wondered if Hongo would help him with the dog.
Hongo didn’t mind. He just needed one thing — the dog’s name, so he could demonstrate familiarity with the dog.
Hongo, though, never got a chance to use the name on the dog.
“The dog was downwind of me, so he could smell me,” Hongo said. “And as soon as he smelled me, he remembered. He lunged and pulled right out of that guy’s hand, who had him on a leash.”
The dog ran at Hongo all out, jumping up and as excited to see him as it is possible for a dog to be.
“This was like eight years that had passed,” Hongo said. “And the dog still remembered me.”
For Hongo, it was a heartwarming moment that reaffirmed everything he’s always believed about the right way to train bird dogs.
“There’s a better way to do it,” he said. “You don’t have to be mean or tough. You’ve got to be fair, but you’ve got to be kind. The dog deserves it.”
These days, Hongo talks more openly about slowing down, but there’s still always one more pup to evaluate, another owner looking for help, or another dog that is just too special to ignore.
The sun is still shining down on a young dog leaning into the wind in Happy Valley, Wyoming, where a patient trainer is taking a thread of raw instinct and spinning it into bird dog gold.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
