Shifting Gears

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Glove training wasn't working. Otto the Great Horned Owl was telling me repeatedly, "no thanks." So I had a decision to make. Would I continue training on the glove? I still had a hundred and one ways to change up my approach to see what would work for Otto.

Or would I shift gears to try something new?

I felt like I needed a break from the glove (and I'm sure Otto did, too), so I decided on a gear shift. After wiping off a layer of dust from the plastic, I hauled the bottom half of Otto's crate into his mew. Our new goal: crate training. If Otto could walk into his crate, in theory I could carry the crate into the classroom and he could walk out onto a perch during a program. He wouldn't need to sit on my glove at all!

I was determined to set up Otto for success, so we started small in our first session. Would he enter the bottom half of his crate for a piece of food? I set a chunk of rat inside and he practically ran in to get it. Success!


Now would he stay there while I moved around? I took two steps back and Otto casually watched. I delivered more treats and he calmly waited for more. I think I finally found a job that Otto enjoys!

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