Quote Originally Posted by Mandragen View Post
There might be another discussion about this somewhere, so if there is please point me in that direction and forgive my redundancy. I come from a very new school of training background. Most of my training experience also comes with training animals that are much bigger and stronger than a person. Not only are they bigger and stronger, but when you are training marine mammals you are also in their element. .
They are certainly bigger and stronger but they also can't fly away or leave the tank. Go trap a wild one and train it in the ocean

But seriously, I've trained and consulted a little on marine mamal training. And it's a huge advantage that you're operating in a VERY controled and consistent environment.

As far as the hood. It's an invaluable tool that most birds do not object to. And it's there for safety and to reduce the stress on the bird. There are times when an animal needs to be transported and very few of them do that well with it.

I did bird shows for years and when you would travel to a new venue you would spend days or weeks getting some of the birds to get comfortable with certain doorways, halls or even strange equipment. I wish I could have hooded parrots, storks, cranes and the rest. The hood is a wonderful tool that few birds object to once they are trained to it. Much like blinders on a horse it has a calming effect on the bird and makes the journey less stressful. (whether the journey is 100 miles or 100 feet)

It's not hard to train a red tail to the hood. Most falconers don't do enough "training" (I know I don't) to the hood, we get to the point of being able to get it on and that's about it. But I have had birds that I worked with more and at the approach of the hood would close the membrane over their eye and lean forward into the hood. I'm sure you could accomplish this with all birds if you wanted.