So many of you proficient holders may already know this and think, yeah that's what we keep saying but I recently had a breakthrough in understanding how to hood train a bird and I figured I would share and see what other people thought.
The standard, old school advice for hood training a bird is to bring the hood up to the chest, then take it away, when that works bring the hood a little closer untill, incremental you can pop the hood on. This never worked for me and I couldn't figure out why. My birds would lean back, doge, bate, bite and generaly make my life hell.
My realization was the taking hood away was the reward for standing still. So now I show the hood to the bird and if the bird stands still, then I take it away. Next I bring it a little closer, wait till the bird stands still, then take it away. If the bird bates, I wait untill it regains the fist and stands still, then I take the hood away. As I progressively bring the hood closer ND closer the bird is learning the best way to deal with the pressure of the hood coming up is to stay still. Usually the first time ever the hood goes on, after after trapping, the bird dosn' doge, bate or lean back, because it has learned the best way to deal with the pressure of the hood coming up to its face is to stand still. This has worked well with the last two birds I have worked with, but that could be dumb luck.
Thoughts? Does this resonate with anyone else, or a I just grasping at straws? Thanks
Jacob L'Etoile
Western MA