Creating a Focused and Confident Owl

As a young animal trainer, I learned that "ABC" is all you need to know. The environment, or Antecedent, leads to a Behavior to get a certain Consequence. Simply by changing the antecedent or consequence, you can change behavior.

That was always in my mind as I worked on glove training with Otto the Great Horned Owl. But I kept getting frustrated. It was like we were not speaking the same language. It felt more like I was coercing him to do something rather than teaching him to do it. I knew Otto was frustrated, too. I started thinking there must be another way to approach this, so I put out my feelers into the world of pet animal training.

I learned about pattern games from a cat behavior consultant a few months ago. I was intrigued and ordered the book that started the pattern game trend. Control Unleashed: Creating a Focused and Confident Dog by Leslie McDevitt arrived in my mailbox and I cracked it open to the first chapter, wondering if there would be anything useful in this book written for agility dogs. As if in answer to my question, McDevitt writes:

"This book is for anybody who wants to teach her dog to focus in difficult situations. It's also especially for people whose dogs are easily distracted, stressed, or reactive."

All I had to do was replace the word dog with owl, and I was sold! Otto was definitely distracted by any noise or movement outside, stressed about changes to our routine, and could be reactive when he didn't want to do something. But could I apply dog training techniques to an owl?

McDevitt's first task asks you to help your dog relax by massaging their ears and jaws. I didn't think Otto would appreciate a belly rub, so I moved on to the next section.

The first and easiest pattern game she recommends is called 1, 2, 3. You simply say "1, 2, 3" and give your dog a treat on 3. I thought I could try this one with Otto. Each time I enter the mew and sit down, I start the pattern: 1, 2, 3, treat, 1, 2, 3, treat. Now that he understands the pattern, he will actually start walking toward me to take the treat. He's choosing to participate and engage with me, rather than staying back and leaning away from me like he used to.

I also started applying the pattern when he gets distracted or afraid of something happening outside. If someone walks through the backyard past the mew, Otto historically would become hyperfocused on them, hiss and clack, and his whole body would tremble. Now when someone walks by, I start the pattern: 1, 2, 3, treat. On 3, he breaks his focus on the interloper and turns to me for a tasty rat tidbit. He may look back to the person, but another 1, 2, 3 will bring his attention back to me. Not only are we working on focus around distractions, we're also pairing good things with those distractions so they won't be so scary in the future.

As I read through the book, I see that McDevitt's training philosophy is more empathetic, meeting the animal where they are. Just like a 5-year-old needs to learn the social skills of being in a classroom before they can succeed in academics, Otto needs to learn how to manage distractions and focus before he can succeed as an ambassador bird. We've just gotten started with pattern games, but I am already seeing a more focused and confident owl!