Two Steps Back, One Leap Forward
Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2015 7:50 pm
I've recently had a sweet and simple reminder that, just like in any relationship, sometimes with IRNs you have to move back to move forward.
Snow is - or was - stick-trained... that is, until I let his beautiful wings grow out to their full length and he learned just how easily he could avoid me trying to put him back in his cage for the night. I think the longest game of catch-me was twenty minutes of near constant fluttering back and forth across the very small room, which left us both puffing. After that, I started to fear that he'd begun to see the stick as an object to be avoided, and because he doesn't think too much of hands it was the only way we had of physically interacting.
Now I really love letting Snow out of his cage. I love watching him on his out-of-cage perches and I even love watching him stretch his beautiful wings in romps around the room. I don't have an aviary, either, so coming out of the cage was really the only way he could get to USE those wings. But I didn't want to have to revert to tackling him with a towel every time I let him out (and I don't think that would've been too good for our relationship either). So, it was with a heavy heart that I decided to keep him "cage-bound" until I could figure out where the training had gone wrong. I continued working with him inside his own cage, every day several times a day for a week, and very quickly discovered that I had been right: he'd started learning to "avoid the stick", and more out of "rebellion" than "fear". We had to go back and "re-train" step-up onto the stick.
Much to my surprise though, in the process of "re-training" step-up, we unexpectedly started getting gentle (non-biting) step-ups onto my hand! It was the first time since bringing him home well over a year ago, and LONG after I'd given up any ideas of having him hand-trained. We have now re-established step-up on the stick (which means he's back to romping round the room) and we are building on step-up on the hand.
Just goes to show, sometimes a set-back isn't really a set-back at all.
Snow is - or was - stick-trained... that is, until I let his beautiful wings grow out to their full length and he learned just how easily he could avoid me trying to put him back in his cage for the night. I think the longest game of catch-me was twenty minutes of near constant fluttering back and forth across the very small room, which left us both puffing. After that, I started to fear that he'd begun to see the stick as an object to be avoided, and because he doesn't think too much of hands it was the only way we had of physically interacting.
Now I really love letting Snow out of his cage. I love watching him on his out-of-cage perches and I even love watching him stretch his beautiful wings in romps around the room. I don't have an aviary, either, so coming out of the cage was really the only way he could get to USE those wings. But I didn't want to have to revert to tackling him with a towel every time I let him out (and I don't think that would've been too good for our relationship either). So, it was with a heavy heart that I decided to keep him "cage-bound" until I could figure out where the training had gone wrong. I continued working with him inside his own cage, every day several times a day for a week, and very quickly discovered that I had been right: he'd started learning to "avoid the stick", and more out of "rebellion" than "fear". We had to go back and "re-train" step-up onto the stick.
Much to my surprise though, in the process of "re-training" step-up, we unexpectedly started getting gentle (non-biting) step-ups onto my hand! It was the first time since bringing him home well over a year ago, and LONG after I'd given up any ideas of having him hand-trained. We have now re-established step-up on the stick (which means he's back to romping round the room) and we are building on step-up on the hand.
Just goes to show, sometimes a set-back isn't really a set-back at all.