Although I wish I could write two different articles on one topic each, that's just not how my video went this week! There were two lessons to be gained, at least. 

The first?

Revisit The Basics 

It was time, after almost 3 weeks of intense, forward-momentum training with Morgan, to re-visit the basics of our training. Go back to the foundation: touch training. 

Signs that you should revisit the basics of training:

• A lack of overall enthusiasm from you or the bird during a session
• A lack of progress being made in any amount of sessions 
• Hesitancy to perform the desired behavior 
• Tons of progress in so little time 
• When new distractions or people present themselves 
• To start or end on a positive note 

Should a bird be able to tell YOU when it wants to train? And if it does, how do you respond? 

This was a great question by one of our long-time viewers who noticed Morgan tell me via body language that she WANTED to have a formal, flight training session. And I obliged her. 

Is that considered being bossed around by your bird? Telling you when you should train, etc? 

If I wasn't open to her telling me that, I would have put her away after our initial touch training session. I was actually hoping she would tell me she wanted to train, because I had felt an overall lack of enthusiasm and fun in our recent sessions because they included a lot of new distractions. 

Now, this isn't the case for everyone, and each situation should be analyzed for the particular situation that it is. But in my case, it was wanted and encouraged. It told me she does still, in fact, enjoy training and she still WANTS to take part. 

I refer to this often as "opportunistic training" and it's something I am very aware of and like to work with, not against.