Quote Originally Posted by Mandragen View Post
I can see where this is helpful, but does it not take time to get the hood off once game as been spotted? Maybe it's just seconds that you are losing but what if you didn't have to keep the bird hooded. I am training my bird now that it shouldn't leave the glove unless I motion for it to do so. It's nothing big, just the slightest movement of the glove hand. Sort of like a dog is taught to point, wait, and not flush until given the S(d), or discriminative stimulus. I know that it sounds complicated or even impossible, but I think it can be done. Instead of the sight of game triggering the chase, while on the fist, it's the movement of the fist that gives the ok. My PRT is just 5 weeks or so off the trap, but she is catching on quick. Sometime we walk with her being free flown and sometimes we practice with her on the fist, but when and where is always up to me, not her.

Is there anyone that does this already with success?
Oliver,
The braces on the hood are loosened/opened enough to permit the hood’s immediate removal. Hawks trained to fly this way explode from the glove, the hood barely clear of their head. The fast removal tells the bird, ‘out there is a hare you can get up to’ and this promise has the already concentrated and fully focussed bird give absolutely everything.
Of course, this puts all the weight on the falconer: he has to get it right, has to assess hares/conditions correctly every time in what might be a split second. If he keeps getting it wrong, commitment goes out the window (which sort of takes us back to the thread on developing a motivated hawk, or ruining one). I will add that the preparation for this is done with lure flights out of the hood.
Another benefit of course, is that when group hawking, the bird doesn’t have to watch other hawks chase hares while she waits for her turn – another killer of motivation.
On your training to keep the bird sitting on the glove and ignoring quarry with a slight special movement, I cannot comment – other than to say I’d love to see it in operation.
Martin