Quote Originally Posted by Saluqi View Post
Hi Oliver,

You asked why hood a bird, Pete and I gave you some reasons why hooding is used and you think it would be better to train the bird not to react to these stimuli. I contend that it's a better use of my time and resources to have a bird that is solid to the hood, rather then attempt to prepare the bird not to react to an almost infinite number of circumstances that might arise at home, in transit, and in the field. As a falconer, and not an animal trainer, I like to focus all of my training on activities that lead to the taking of wild game with my bird, and the hood is a tool allows me to do so - I simply do not have the time or desire to train for every eventuality, it's that simple I'm lazy.
Paul, you are not lazy, you are just using common sense. Oliver is looking at this from an animal trainers perspective. He is used to training animals. In reality, we aren't training our raptors to do what we want, we are training them to adapt to us and what will be happening when we take them to the field and what will happen in the field and to allow us to participate with them. Sure, there are some that train their raptors to turn in a circle for a tidbit and to follow a laser beam, but is that for falconry or for their amusement. I am like you, I just want to have a relationship with my birds that allows me to participate with them in the field while they catch game. Give Oliver a couple years of actually doing falconry and it will be much more clearer to him.

Oh yeah, Oliver, I never hooded my birds the first 3 years I was a falconer. I never had any problems, things worked just fine for me. But the reason I didn't was I was told you didn't need to hood a red-tail or kestrel. I decided I wanted to learn how to hood a bird and the next red-tail I got I hooded. I will never have another bird that I won't hood. You say you are lazy, well, hooding a bird just makes it that much easier for the falconer.