I began to work on hooding, but within a few days he was freaking out every time I picked him up so I backed off with it. I also had to travel to Ohio for work for the better part of a week, and since my wife and son were going to be helping out with him while I was gone, I didn't want to make things any more complicated than they needed to be.

I basically had them hide a quail with a string on it in the yard, and then walk around with him on the fist for a little bit before "finding" the quail and letting him drop down to eat it. That went fine.

On my end though, once I got back he'd scream/cry at me when ever I had him on the fist. He was obviously scared of me, and would "twitch" when ever I moved my right hand. Very troubling.

I decided to shift gears again and see if I could get him hunting a bit. I started out walking him around looking for sparrows in the grass, but he wasn't very interested in them. He's interested in larger birds, but doesn't seem to pay much attention at all to the little ones.

Before going out I would put a quail in the launcher, and eventually mosey my way over to it to give him a chase and catch to wrap things up. The launcher is for ducks/pheasants, so tosses the quail up about 30ft and he takes off after it.

The problem now though was he was still very fearful and un-trusting of me, so I put a long piece of heavy fishing line on the quail's legs to trail out behind it. That way once he grabbed it I could step on the line, and walk my way up to him. I was worried he'd try to carry the quail off, and this allowed me to stop that.

He didn't try to carry, but he'd mantle very hard, and always face away from me. I'd let him eat his fill, and when he lost interest I'd try to pick him up. He absolutely would not allow me to get in front of him though, and he'd keep turning away. When I'd scoop him up he'd bate and scream and bate and scream all the way back home (worse after he'd eaten than before).

Yuck.