The chicks are getting so big! They're making a mess of their water dish and such so I put some 2x4 blocks under their water and feed dish and we'll see if that helps. I also cleaned out their box. They didn't squawk as much when I caught them this time either. Both their primaries and secondaries have come in quite well on their wings too. So I cleaned out their box and then came the tough part...training Jedi.
I took the chicks in the smaller box into the house, I had set out some turkey to thaw for working with Jedi...but apparently it took less time to clean the chicks' box than I had thought...so it wasn't thawed yet. Caleb quickly sliced me some fresh cheddar cheese. Carrying the box into the house was definitely very exciting for Jedi. He was jumping up on me and would not follow a command except sit, and was too excited to take cheese.
I put the box down on the hearth and took Jedi to the other end of the living room. Then he was able to work with me. He actually did much better than the last time we worked in the living room with the chicks. I never had to take him into the sun room. We worked on weaves, paws up, shake, sit/stay, down/stay, sit, stand, touch, down, crawl, chill, roll over, up, and off in quick succession. Even moving to within 2 feet of the box with noisy chicks in it, he did not break any tricks or stays. Doing a down or sit/stay within 2-3 feet of the box, he would look over towards the box, but he didn't break and he did every trick. At 5-6 feet from the box he didn't even glance towards it so much better than last time. We ended the session going through the door to the yard. Then I stuffed the remaining treats in a kong and went back inside to retreive the chicks and return them to their main box.
Next time I will have Jedi outside while I bring the chicks in, so that he is better controlled and focused the whole time instead of instantly over-excited. Then I can bring him in and slowly work him closer to the box.
No comments:
Post a Comment