Quote:
Originally Posted by ajbrown
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What a cutie, and I love her ears!
Our command for "drop" is "leave it." We once had a talking bird, Isa. When we got Isa, our former golden was a ripe old age, very calm. Isa could land on him and he would just look at him and sigh, "Dang, there's a bird on me. Oh well..." So Isa wasn't afraid of Bear.
Fast forward; Bear passes on, and we get Crosby. Isa is not afraid of Crosby (why should he be, he's the same color, just smaller), but young Crosby thought Isa was a chew toy.
I put Isa's travel cage on the floor, door closed, and spent hours with Crosby teaching "Leave it." I had no choice--it was a crash course. I would say Leave it when he looked at Isa, and treat him when he looked away. It took two weeks.
I enjoyed teaching that command more than any other training. I think because there was always a treat at the end. After a year, Isa could land on Crosby, and I could let Isa's wings grow out.
When Crosby gave up on Isa he graduated to socks, by the way. That Leave it command for socks usually resulted in a staring contest that lasted a minute before he complied. I was taught you should only say the command once.
Crosby's slowing down now. Every once in awhile, I wish he would steal some socks.