Ruger - 2013 Imprint Male Goshawk

[rocgwp]

Today I picked up my new goshawk. He was bred by Steve Kaufer in Wisconsin. I will be raising him using direct food association and shaping his behavior with operant conditioning philosophies/techniques such as a clicker. He will be flown on gray squirrels, starlings, grackles, quail, and woodcock. I'm really excited about this bird!!!

[BestBeagler]

Jeff,

Exciting to hear! I enjoyed your last goshawk thread. Good luck!

[JRedig]

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[FredFogg]

Congrats! I too will be watching this thread daily!

[Dirthawking]

Ruger G13.... Huh....Never heard of that model!

[hcmcelroy]

Best of luck I look forward to reading the steps.

Harry.

[rocgwp]

The differences between individual hawks always amazes me. Apache was a really laid back bird. He recognized the CR early on, but wasn't ever zealous about anything early on and it took a lot of work to get him to work for the CR and offer behaviors.

Ruger is gonna be different. After just a couple feedings, he is already working for the CR. I am rewarding calm behaviors at this point. When I approach, he chirps and stands and makes his way to the side of the nest bowl closest to me. I wait for him to sit and have a relaxed demeanor before he gets fed. I wait for him to calm down and to be quiet before I CR and give him another bite. I am trying to be careful and reward the calmness and self-restraint at this point. My goal is to establish myself to be seen as the parent.

Ruger is not on a feeding schedule as well. I will be feeding him at random intervals throughout the day. Sometimes I will feed him a lot, sometimes he will only get a couple bites. This would be similar to the parents feeding whatever size meal they catch whenever they catch it. Also, the method of delivering the food I am using is with my bare hands. I simply set the bowl of meat down and then pick up a small piece. When I see something I'm looking for, I CR and hand him a piece of meat.

As you will notice, I also ascribe to Layman's thoughts on asper prevention using conifer needles. Ruger will always be surrounded with conifer needles in his nestbowl and later on I will put ground conifer needles anytime he is traveling in his giant hood.

[royale26]

Jeff,
We never conversed on our gos's that we got from Barry in 2011, but I have a full brother and clutch mate to your Apache. From your thread on him, he looked to be an awesome game hawk, much like mine. I hope your new charge is everybit as laid back as the last, and that the responsiveness to the CR continues.

Pic from this morning, Laid back......

[rocgwp]

Jeff,
We never conversed on our gos's that we got from Barry in 2011, but I have a full brother and clutch mate to your Apache. From your thread on him, he looked to be an awesome game hawk, much like mine. I hope your new charge is everybit as laid back as the last, and that the responsiveness to the CR continues.

It was a kick in the gut to lose Apache to West Nile. He was a great game hawk and fun to have around. Your bird looks great. I love the eyes and laid back demeanor in the pic. Barry produces some great goshawks. I hope Ruger turns out to be as good as Apache and your bird. I have a high standard set for him.

[rocgwp]

Day 13

Eating and sleeping compose most of Ruger's day. I am doing a couple new things with Ruger that I didn't do with Apache.

I recently used a sound conditioning CD when I raised a litter of german wirehair pups and really liked the results. The CD was designed to be used with horses so that they would be conditioned to not spook at loud noises. I played it continually with the pups and it seems to have made a difference. It has all kinds of sounds from crowds cheering, to construction, to animals, etc... I am playing it with Ruger to see if there is an impact on him. The hope would be that these loud noises just become background noise and a part of life to him and not something scary later in life.

The other thing I am incorporating is target training. I did a little target training with Apache, but I never fully developed it. Today I introduced Ruger to the target stick. By the end of the meal he would turn and touch his beak to the stick on both sides of his body at which point i would CR and then hand him food. I plan to use this to move him around and be able to get him where I want him without having to scare him by picking him up. I also would like to transition it to a laser later on to use in the field while hunting. I can see lots of useful applications of being able to target the bird to where I want him to go. We'll see how it works out.

The big thing for me right now is to make sure I follow Layman's advice and avoid "Death by paper cuts". All of the small handling mistakes are like paper cuts that eventually they add up and can cause you to bleed out (or in this case, result in a bird hanging off your face). I am trying to perfect my handling so that I cause as few paper cuts as possible.

[rocgwp]

Here is a short video showing some of the target training I was working on tonight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRnlnu27O98

[Breeze]

Here is a short video showing some of the target training I was working on tonight:

Smart little bugger!

[rocgwp]

Day 14

Today's update is much of the same. I'm feeding him at different intervals and amounts throughout the day. In each session I concentrate on him being calm to take the food or on targeting. After feeding him a minute ago, I put my hand out and he snuggled under it and went to sleep.

I am not posting any weights on Ruger, since I am not weighing him yet. Trying to weigh him daily at this age risks causing some fear chittering, so I am holding off. I'll post a weight when I find an easy opportunity to weigh him without causing fear.

[rocgwp]

Day 16

Ruger continues to eat, sleep. and poop at this point. He has responded really well to target training and I'm excited to see the application for that down the road. We continue to play the sound conditioning cd and he sleeps through all of it. I don't know if it will have a major impact or not, but it's worth a try.

Some people have asked what cd I'm using. Here is a link to it: http://www.spookless.com/productsandservices.html

Tonight I installed braided dacron anklets on him. There was no fear chittering and they went on super easy. I really like this style anklet. I've used them on coops and several falcons and they hold up well with no abrasion. The only issue I've had was with a lanner that liked to pick at his gear. Other than that, they are wonderful.

One thing I have done different with Ruger's imprint tank as opposed to Apache's, is I changed the lining material. With my birds in the past I've lined the imprint tank with a shower curtain or other plastic material. The mutes would hit the plastic and slide down. I would then change it as needed every couple of days. The only problem was that the wet mutes would pile up at the base of the plastic and the odor was pretty strong if not changed often enough. With Ruger's, I lined it with a canvas painter's drop cloth. The canvas absorbs the liquid and has really cut down on odor (which makes my wife happy). I have 2 drop cloths that I rotate since all i have to do is throw it in the wash to clean it.

[Ally]

Jeff - SO EXCITED to see this thread!!! I can't wait to read about Ruger and your progress with him!!

[JRedig]

One thing I have done different with Ruger's imprint tank as opposed to Apache's, is I changed the lining material. With my birds in the past I've lined the imprint tank with a shower curtain or other plastic material. The mutes would hit the plastic and slide down. I would then change it as needed every couple of days. The only problem was that the wet mutes would pile up at the base of the plastic and the odor was pretty strong if not changed often enough. With Ruger's, I lined it with a canvas painter's drop cloth. The canvas absorbs the liquid and has really cut down on odor (which makes my wife happy). I have 2 drop cloths that I rotate since all i have to do is throw it in the wash to clean it.

+1 here, been using drop cloths to line floors and other area's of my mews for a few years now, works great!

[wesleyc6]

I too am enjoying the updates. Congrats on the new bird bud!

[Goshawk635]

Thanks for this thread.

Jeff, I was planning on a Kaufer bird this year but as luck would have it this is a "No eyas" year at my house due to work and home.

I look forward to following your quest this summer

[goshawkr]

Tonight I installed braided dacron anklets on him. There was no fear chittering and they went on super easy. I really like this style anklet. I've used them on coops and several falcons and they hold up well with no abrasion. The only issue I've had was with a lanner that liked to pick at his gear. Other than that, they are wonderful.

Jeff,

You caught my attention with the braided anklets you mention. A little over 10 years ago I switched to braided anklets because my climate is so wet that leather anklets were failing after about 4 weeks of use. The first ones I used were braided tarred nylon, and I was worried they would be too abraisive so I lined them with leather. Since the leather wasn't structural, I was able to get them to last quite a while. One pair is still serviceable after 4 years of active use and several more sitting in a bin, but they looked pretty ugly.

For my breeding birds that I rarely handle, where abraision is not a serious concern I have been using some traditional jesses made out of parachute cord.

For my falconry birds that are handled regularly I am currently using anklets I make out of 1500 pound test spectra, but they are a pain to size and install. So far they are holding up well.

Your braided Dacron looks quite elegant. Would you be willing to take a close up photo of it?

One thing I have done different with Ruger's imprint tank as opposed to Apache's, is I changed the lining material. With my birds in the past I've lined the imprint tank with a shower curtain or other plastic material. The mutes would hit the plastic and slide down. I would then change it as needed every couple of days. The only problem was that the wet mutes would pile up at the base of the plastic and the odor was pretty strong if not changed often enough. With Ruger's, I lined it with a canvas painter's drop cloth. The canvas absorbs the liquid and has really cut down on odor (which makes my wife happy). I have 2 drop cloths that I rotate since all i have to do is throw it in the wash to clean it.

Been doing that during my entire falconry career. Cleanup is much easier, and you don't have to worry about drips happening as you change them out or clean them. I keep a few heavy retired absorbant blankets around for that purpose.

[rocgwp]

Jeff,

Your braided Dacron looks quite elegant. Would you be willing to take a close up photo of it?

Here is the link to the anklets.

http://www.mikesfalconry.com/BRAIDED...LETS-p/dr1.htm

Layman said they are very similar to one of his early designs he used. I'm not sure who braids them for Mike's Falconry, but I love them. For those of us that don't braid, this is a great option that lasts a long time. I too had the problem of leather wearing out quickly with birds being in their bath pans frequently.

[kitana]

Thanks for the link Jeff, very interesting. I'm not very good with falcon's size, but as I guess I would say size 3 would fit a male goshawk or a male Harris?

[Breeze]

Jeff - this is an AWESOME thread and look forward to following it every day. LOVE the fact that you are training using CR's and targets! So many possibilities! Look forward to watching the progression of Ruger. Thanks for sharing with all of us!

[kitana]

I was wondering about hooding Jeff: since you already started target training with success, do you plan to start hood training and desensitizing to the hood? Maybe starting this early could make the bird acquire an immense history of reinforcement associated with hooding and help him get through the panic phase where the braces are shut for the first time. What do you think?

[rocgwp]

I was wondering about hooding Jeff: since you already started target training with success, do you plan to start hood training and desensitizing to the hood? Maybe starting this early could make the bird acquire an immense history of reinforcement associated with hooding and help him get through the panic phase where the braces are shut for the first time. What do you think?

I won't introduce the hood until later on when he can exercise hard. I'm going off Layman's experience here. He has done both and both work. The chance of paper cuts is greater when you start hooding early. I like how Apache's hooding worked out, so I am going that route.

[rocgwp]

Went to Bass Pro to get some work done on my bow today and Ruger tagged along. 2 hours in the store and nobody ever noticed him. I'm always amazed by that.

[OATS]

Went to Bass Pro to get some work done on my bow today and Ruger tagged along. 2 hours in the store and nobody ever noticed him. I'm always amazed by that.

Too funny Jeff! It always amazes me how this sport is so below the radar that most people don't notice or recognize what they see. Good luck and great thread. I look forward to following your progress.

[allredone]

Very glad to see this thread. I will be following.

[Minkenry]

Went to Bass Pro to get some work done on my bow today and Ruger tagged along. 2 hours in the store and nobody ever noticed him. I'm always amazed by that.

LOL People are so clueless! I took two adult mink into Cabela's and close to no one noticed ether!

[rocgwp]

Nothing major to update on Ruger at this point. We really need some cool weather. I had intended to start him with car hawking, but we don't have the slips to do it consistently right now so I abandoned that plan. He is noisier than I like, but once he gets hunting i anticipate that changing.

I took him out today for a short walk in the woods. The heat gets to him pretty fast and he's not really in shape yet. We did a couple lure calls and then I gave him a baggie quail. He is definitely in a baby mindset still. I'm going to try and keep him in that mindset until cooler weather gets here.

[JRedig]

Does he show any favoritism or lack of use in the wing on the same side? Foot responses equal? (ability to grab, etc)

[rocgwp]

Does he show any favoritism or lack of use in the wing on the same side? Foot responses equal? (ability to grab, etc)

He has less control of his right foot for sure. He has a hard time getting his right foot under him and his foot flat. His right wing seems to droop some, but I have assumed that it was because that is how he stabilizes himself.

When he was on his back I saw him clench both of his feet and show he can open and close them, but upright I haven't seen him foot or try to grab anything with either foot.

[rocgwp]

[rocgwp]

29 days

Ruger is standing finally. He is talking small steps, but not with any sort of control or balance. My guess is he will figure out how to cope on his own.

[hcmcelroy]

Jeff,

Perhaps Ruger will overcome. Humans have a rather encouraging record of recovery from various injuries and I hope he may too.

Harry.

[hcmcelroy]

Jeff,

Sounds like good news. Perhaps he will develop at a slower pace but eventually catch up.

Harry.