Engage-Disengage

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Last week I wrote about taking a big leap with Otto the Great Horned Owl. We stepped out the door!

While it was a huge accomplishment, we still have plenty of work to do in this arena. Otto wasn't exactly happy with the new arrangement. Stepping outside was scary for him. Now we need to work to make the Museum backyard a positive place.

In our next training session, I didn't even ask him to step on glove. I asked him to go to the scale, hop to a perch, fly back to his hutch. Easy, fun stuff is important to give him a break from serious training. If every session was really difficult and near his limit, he may not want to participate any more. 

Then I started thinking: how could I acclimate Otto to the world outside the door without going through the door every time? What if we tried the Engage/Disengage game? 

This pattern game was popularized by dog trainers that work with fearful or reactive dogs, but I actually learned about it from a cat behavior consultant. The idea is that the animal looks at a trigger (engages), you click, she looks away from the trigger (disengages) back to you, and she gets a treat. After many repetitions, the animal learns that it is more rewarding to look away from a potentially scary thing, rather than bark at it, lunge at it, or hide from it. The game also creates positive associations with the trigger, so eventually it doesn't seem so scary anymore. 


In the cat world, this game is useful with cats that tend to attack other cats in the household. The aggressor cat looks at the other cat, then gets a click and a treat when she looks away from him. It becomes more rewarding to turn away from that cat than to attack him. 

I decided to try this game with Otto. I left the mew door open during our session so he could see through it from the safety of a perch. I waited until he looked outside, then clicked and gave a treat. Look outside, click, treat. Look outside, click, treat. 

I can't say if Otto is catching onto the game yet. But I hope two benefits will come from this:

  1. Looking outside will become fun, and not scary, by pairing it with an easy game and food.
  2. It will become more rewarding for him to look at me when he gets scared, rather than try to fly away.



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