Okay, I've heard of plenty of different hooding techniques and how to get the bird used to the hood but y'know, I don't ever remember seeing a thread on this topic. If some of you greats like FB, Weas, Alex, Aaron and Yarak wouldn't mind, I'd like to get a bit of a discussion on hoods and hooding going here.
Ill just throw in my meathod of hooding. First the bird is introduced to a condition reinforcer, a whistle with a tidbit. After the bird learns to associate the whistle with food. The hood is shown from a distance. As soon as the bird looks at the hood you whistle and give the tidbit. Slowly you repeat this proccess moving the hood closer and closer, untill you can place it on the birds head with the braces open. After a few times with the braces open the braces can be closed. Once the bird is accepting the hood break off using the tidbits and whistle. And if the bird ever needs to be polished up on its hooding you can just reuse the meathod. It can take anywhere from a few min. to a few days depending on the bird. The trick is to get the hood as close as possable without frightening the bird. Soon the bird awaits the hood as it learns it will get a tidbit.
Just out of curiousity, I've heard that the birds remember it if you mistreat them. Wouldn't hooding them when you first trap them put a bad light on hooding when it came to training them to the hood? I was wondering about that the other night.
That probably does work against you, but then again remember all the crap they go through when first trapped. They have a huge car come flying up to them, then a weird 2 legged creature grabs them, puts this thing on their head, wraps them up, takes them home, puts this stuff on their legs, keeps them inside, wants to hold them, etc. Most of the begining is probably washed away by the early manning, where it focuses on getting away from you becuase you are holding it. JMHO
Falcon Boy Apprentice Falconry Administrator
Ethics make the individual, not the other way around.
Jay said it with the same method I use. Associate the bird with the hood slowly letting the bird realise that it is not something to be feared. My wifes bird was forced to take the hood repeatedly as it was a stubborn bird but it never failed to try attack the hood whenever it was seen no matter what the situation. Like Jay said, a conditioned reinforcer is a great method to use as it promotes a positive light towards the hood. Just don't tid bit the bird everytime the hood comes off as the bird will begin to anticipate the food being there before the hood is removed and you will end up with four pointy talons in your hand. A good book to read about training methods such as this is "Don't shoot the dog!" by Karen Pryor
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion................ and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish."
In my case, hood training starts immediatly after trapping, and durring manning.
Once they're in shock is the best time to take full advantage of hooding. They wont be able to resist you and after awhile they'll realize that the hood means them no harm, and in fact prevents them from having to deal with YOU. ( and later is a pre-requisite of obtaining food)
I take my birds through the wake, and in doing so I use hood to calm them down. Taking the hood off.. revealing my scary face, scaring the SH!@t out of them, and then giving them a break by putting the hood back on.
Once they're out of shock, i continue to hood-unhood the bird randomly untill they're down in weight.
( try as much as possible to refrain from tightning the brase's untill they're tolerant of you. Imagine that you've just been captured and sombody throws a bag over your head and begins to tighten )
Once my birds are accepting tidbits without problem I place tidbits inside the hood ( randomly, somtimes offer them the glove, then somtimes the hood )
Once they've gotten use to the hood i hood-unhood the bird ( never forcing them to accept or quickly covering there head.. meerly lulling them to take it ) with a reward for doing what I want.
Once my birds begin to accept the hood without protest I just use the repetion of Hooding my bird before weighing, and anything else and then uhooding when ready to fly for a reward.
So eventiolly he'll get the idea that once the hood go's on.. He's going to get a chance at food. ( Food can be either a tidbit, game, or his meal for the day ) In some case's he'll actually get impatient for you to put the darn thing on, and stick his head out to get a better fit.
Remember, Hooding like hood making is an Art Form. Not everybody can do it on there first try. Just learn from your mistakes and learn how to do diffrently next time.
Definitly run this one by your sponser. He can fill in the details that would take a day to explain in writing.
Post by Falcon Boy on Aug 12, 2005 12:35:50 GMT -5
i would like to point out one thing that ive noticed. Alex you ssaid you give tidbits by hand. i advise you DONT do this unless you want to be footed. I never, EVER EVER let a redtail see where food comes from, it magically appears on the glove and lure, never once have any of my redtails seen it come from my hand, and thus i feel is why i have never been footed.
Falcon Boy Apprentice Falconry Administrator
Ethics make the individual, not the other way around.
Yes, I agree with FB on that one for sure. Red tails will very quickly learn to anticipate the food rewards and if that happens to be from your hand, they will try to grab it before you "give it' to them...even if nothings there. The only time I have been footed was in the field and it was my fault for the position I was forced to be in at the time.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion................ and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish."
Well if they're that retarted to listin to me and only me then im glad they got footed. Shouldnt be learning how to train a redtail on this forum. Should be asking there sponser.
We're comparing training techniques to those that already know how to do it. This forum isnt meant to teach you from scratch how to do anything other then get informed and find a sponser. Sadly very few seem to have grasped this concept of the forum.
All right, here goes. I made a big booboo this summer. I got lazy and didn't make it a practice to hood my gos regularly. Last year was a fight to get her to accept the hood. It is looking like this year is gonna be worse. When she finally gave in to the hood all was fine last year. Now, not looking forward to tussling with her ducking and bobbing (and I thought falcons could bob and weave) I decided to try a method I never heard of until this summer. I first heard of the strobe light method from a very respected falconer friend of mine. Later I heard it was from O/C methods. I decided to give it a try. Last night I went out and bought the strobe light for 20 bucks. I am guessing the way it is supposed to work is to take the bird into a dark room and turn on the strobe light. The bird will not have time to react to the stimuli of the hood in a negative way as the strobe is giving images in a mesmerizing way? First trial is set for this afternoon. I'll keep you all posted on its workings. This is a hen Finn, captive bread, hard imprint gos 1 x intermewed.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion................ and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish."