Speaking of it, the water spray bottle is a very important auxiliary tool in modern western eagle training. It has a good calming effect on eagles and falcons, and sprays their feathers wet after every training or hunting, or before new training.
Generally speaking, a well-trained falcon, whether it is disc hunting or boxing, should have the following characteristics;
A: I'm not afraid to meet people.
B: it's easy to button the hat.
C: You can start from Hayabusa without food.
D: sensitive to fake bait, bright bait 10 second flight.
E: I won't run away with food.
G: Just change the bait.
Most of the problems of drifting falcons are caused by early basic training, which is one of the reasons why I have been hesitant to write falcons. Because I haven't trained for several years, I have forgotten many details, but these details are actually very important. All right! I have probably talked about all the basic skills of falcon, and then I want to talk about how to send falcon to the height and position you want.
Next, the first part is about how to make the falcon reach the ideal height. For foreign hunting circles,150m should be considered as a low standard, and the ideal height is about 250m or more. But before I say this, I have to do some psychological construction for you first, and then; Although all real falcons can be trained to hunt in plates, not all falcons are born with plates; Some people will go up as easy as blowing off dust, and some people have to work hard to find their way. Usually, the small ones are easier than the big ones. They swim south with big blackheads and intend to swim north. Pigeon tigers are easier than duck tigers, swimming is easier than rabbit tigers, and rabbit tigers are easier than spears. So, if you are training a bigger falcon now, you won't be able to get on it for a long time. Don't lose heart, you will go up when the time is right. Besides, if there is a prey catapult, so much the better. If you don't know what to do, you can ask Xiao Deng.
If it is the kind that is easy to practice, it will automatically leave its hand. After flying around you, many people should get up and fly automatically. I think we have seen a lot of so-called conditioned reflex training. We should know that it is a reward to do what you want in the trained animals. When do you want to fly high? Goofy? Still crawling and flying? The answer is to throw pigeons when climbing and flying, then the falcon will understand that climbing will pay off. If the falcon is a fixed-point reward, then its height is almost fixed. A falcon is hovering directly above you. Once it stops flapping its wings, it will only fly in circles. Don't throw pigeons at it even if it is 3 or 400 meters high. Because most falcons need to fly out first, and then fly to your side to get enough distance to climb to the right height, it is not enough for a person's heart to hunt in a plate, because when climbing, it is often the time to carry you, but this is actually the best time to throw pigeons. So if your falcon flies a few hundred meters away, turn around and climb all the way. Of course, some falcons will come straight up and fly directly over your head, so much the better. To make the falcon tall, you must learn to "put it down". Don't take out fake bait or throw pigeons when the falcon flies a little, the whistle will ring all over the sky. Let Hayabusa breathe a sigh of relief and restore Feng Ling's feeling of controlling clouds, which has not been seen for a long time since he was caught. Let it fly. No matter how big the circle around the falcon is, as long as you climb it, you can reward it by throwing pigeons, because as I said before, altitude is the focus of early training, and the position can be adjusted slowly. If the falcon is always above you, don't reward it, because in real hunting, you don't just pay attention to yourself, but to you, your dog and your frightened prey. In addition, the position of the falcon is best on the windward side, so that once the prey is frightened, the falcon has a greater success rate on the windward side, so when the falcon is high enough, it can also be rewarded on the windward side. If the falcon always puts a plate on your head and bounces pigeons with a remote control catapult instead of throwing pigeons directly, it can make the falcon focus on all the movements of the whole hunting ground.
Pigeon method is the most commonly used method in the United States at present, but it is not the only method to encourage falcons to fly high. Before 1970, hunting without pigeons was carried out for hundreds of years. Even now, due to European society, animal rights are rising. It is unacceptable for local society to throw living things to birds of prey. How should falcons be trained? Traditionally, the most basic method is to use fake bait, but as I said before, the use of fake bait is given after being lit, so the falcon often interrupts the climbing action when rewarding, so the training rate is low. In addition, falcons give fake bait and throw bait is different. Say it briefly. Don't let the falcon run after it like a bait at the beginning of training. When the falcon is climbing, reward it. When the falcon notices it, when it starts flying towards you, throw the fake bait on the ground. Grab the bait rope and let the falcon catch it directly. Make it clear. This is a reward. Reward, call back the action and drink it in one breath. The second traditional method is the prey flying method. If you are lucky, you live in a place with many prey and good hunting dogs. Let the dog mark the prey first. The falcon put it on and began to climb. If you think you want to reward the falcon, let the dog fly the prey out and let the falcon dive, just like throwing pigeons. I have never been so lucky, but all my friends who have tried think this is the best way. A variant of this method is the wild duck. If you can find a small pond with wild ducks in winter, you can avoid dogs.
Of course, the above discussion is aimed at falcons who are naturally trying to climb. For those individuals who only want to fly horizontally, they have to pay special attention to creating conditions for falcons to fly upwards. The most primitive method is the updraft method. There are two ways. The first is to use the relative high temperature at noon (even if the temperature is below zero, there will be a relative high temperature at noon) to give the falcon a chance to climb up and reward it to fly up. The second is the hillside method, which is to find a hill and take the falcon to the windward. When the wind blows uphill, it will blow. At this time, the falcon flying around us will have a chance to catch the updraft, and we can reward it.
Helium balloon or kite method is the most commonly used method in modern western countries. It is a quick and simple way to put balloons or kites in the sky first, and then put falcons on them to catch dead birds. I haven't tried it myself, so I can't say much. I am very interested. This article is finished. I can translate some documents to discuss with you. However, many friends have commented that this method can make the falcon learn to climb quickly, but once the balloon or kite is gone, the falcon's height is usually much lower, and this method can't train the falcon's position.
If the falcon is too focused on you to get on the plate, you can try this method; Find a friend, each with seven or eight racing pigeons and one or two meat pigeons standing at a distance of about 80- 100 meters. If the falcon is still flying low over your head after flying, ask your friend to fly a racing pigeon and focus the falcon on your friend. Your friend will release one every few minutes until the falcon flies over his head. At this time, it's your turn to release the racing pigeons, so that the falcon will run back and forth several times.
Pigeons gradually know that they have to fly high to take care of you two, and the daily training is to increase the distance between you two every day. In this way, in order to take care of your increased distance, the falcon has to continue to fly upwards to increase its altitude, and gradually it should be able to reach the ideal altitude.
Then there is the method of sewing pigeon eyes (I have never used it before, my friend taught me). You can use a needle and thread to pass through the edge of the lower eyelid of the pigeon, and then pull it to the top of the head to tie it up, so as to cover the pigeon's field of vision. On the first day, use a meat pigeon, take off the falcon hat, throw the pigeon out and let the falcon fly over to catch the pigeon. Falcons should be able to catch pigeons within 50 meters. After catching it, let it pluck its hair, take a few bites, blow a whistle and hit it, and feed it the expected amount that day. Go home. The next day, you throw the pigeon out first, then take off the eagle hat and let it catch up with the pigeon. Continue to do this every day, but extend the time to take off your hat every day and wait until the pigeons fly to a higher altitude. Take some pigeons with you, because some pigeons will only jump on the ground after they are released. Because your falcon is still wearing a hat when releasing the pigeon, if the pigeon doesn't fly, pick it back and change it until the pigeon can fly. At this stage, use strong, but not too good racing pigeons (save some money, but still fly high), and don't use meat pigeons that don't like flying high. Racing pigeons with stitched eyes usually fly high, because stronger pigeons fly higher. You can also sew your eyes loosely, not completely sealed. Pigeons only see a little, and it seems that they can fly higher than a complete seal. Sometimes throwing pigeons and shouting to scare them will also make them fly very high. If all goes well, in just a few days, your falcon should be able to rise to 100 meters and catch pigeons with stitched eyes. However, pigeons with stitched eyes can generally reach this height. If you want to push the falcon up, you have to put on very strong racing pigeons without seams (because you don't want the falcon to catch these racing pigeons). This method is similar to that mentioned above. Throw pigeons first, then take off your hat. At this time, the falcon thinks that he is still a pigeon chasing the seam, and the height should be added soon. As long as your falcon gives up chasing, throw an easy meat pigeon to reward it. Peregrine falcons usually give up quickly, but it doesn't matter, that's what we want. If the falcon doesn't seem to give up chasing pigeons, blow the whistle and throw an easy pigeon. See if the falcon will come back. Don't worry too much if you don't come back. Give it more time. Even if they fly out of sight, if the pigeons you throw are strong enough, they should escape. If you train in the same place every day, your falcon should come back. You can continue to throw strong racing pigeons every day until the falcon knows that it will automatically get up as soon as it loses control, and then train according to the basic racing pigeon method.
Again, pigeons are for falcons to chase, not for us to pet. In order to achieve the training effect of falcon, these pigeons must be in very good condition and should be taken care of in normal diet, flight training, pigeon house cleaning and so on. When you take it out to train falcons, you should put it in a good pigeon cage, and the feathers should be neat and clean. The pigeon's oocysts can only be used after digestion.
Once the falcon knows how to dish, is it high? In addition to the conditions I mentioned earlier, physical fitness is very important. As far as modern fitness knowledge is concerned, two people weigh the same, but one is full of muscles, the other is full of brains and intestines, and they also ate a big meal. Who do you think will be heavier the next day? So when we talk about glancing, we can't just look at the weight. In addition to weighing, the traditional old handle usually touches and checks the chest muscles of the eagle. This is scientific, not a bluff. Traditional training methods, in the busy modern society, it is difficult to exercise the falcon's physical fitness by hunting alone. Over the past 20 years, western falconry has developed a set of high-intensity physical exercise methods, that is, falcons jump 3-5 meters vertically, dozens to hundreds of times. This training is basically similar to the traditional boring boxing, but it is really intense training. This kind of training is called "jumping training" in English. Interested friends can find some articles about this kind of training online. One more thing I emphasized before is to throw bait, which is actually the best way to strengthen physical fitness, exercise flexibility and "foot diameter", but it is not suitable for every falcon. If the falcon is too focused on people in the early stage of disc flying training and the disc flying is not high, it needs the double method or kite balloon method, so it can't be used. Only when the falcon reaches your various height, position and stability requirements can you swing the bait in the disc hunting training. If your falcon is a less sticky individual, the fake bait will be recalled when the hunting is unsuccessful. Originally, we were asked to simply feed the bait and put it directly on the ground. At this time, it can be changed to swing the bait when the falcon approaches, so that the falcon can impact 3-40 times (of course, slowly every time), which will greatly improve the falcon's physical strength and flexibility.