RE: [Freeflight] Re: Maybe a new indoor flyspace?/Acclimation

["Bart Van Hoyweghen" <Bart.Van.Hoyweghen@...>]

Do whatever to make your bird comfortable and at ease. Even if it makes
other people give you the "eye"

I feel this is an underestimated factor in training birds. This is THE
reason why Chris Biro insists on repeating the whole training once you
go outside, or to another place. The bird knows the behavior, sees
you're at ease and will calm down quickly.

People often make this error with dogs in a thunderstorm. They try to
soothe the dog, and instead confirm the dog he should be scared because
the dog sees his owner behave strangely. Instead, you should ignore the
storm and act normal to the dog, train him, play with him, whatever.

So for me the most normal behavior towards my birds is put them on my
shoulder. If they are in a carrier, I put my fingers in the carrier (I
always do this when my birds are in their cage). If for you the most
normal behavior (in strange places) is putting them in a carrier then do
so. If you read a magazine, sing or talk, then do so. The birds will
calm down very quickly if they see you acting normal.

For other people, If you're totally new to this, develop a routine. 
You'll see it helps in difficult situations.

Bart

>>> knox@... 31/01/2005 19:26:50 >>>
Bart, shoulder time (for us) is out of the question at this point. I
am
a very comfortable place for her (shoulders/chest/arms/hands), but
she's
been too tightly confined through her life, and a startled fly-off
would
put us two steps backward. She's an amazing flyer for as short as
she's
been at it, but her fear-level is still too high, and confidence level
too low for this kind of change in scale.