After much internal deliberation I have decided to go back to the kite. I’ve trained plenty of birds with the use of pigeons. I had a gyr/peregrine that would spec out daily from the use of pigeons. But this was before kites and if I had to do it again, I’d use a kite.

After two days of letting Doc fly around aimlessly, letting him chase pigeons and waiting for him to decide on his own to go up (which I have NO DOUBT, he would have soon) it just didn’t feel right to me to know how to use such a valuable tool and leave it in my truck. I wouldn’t forego lure training or hooding or telemetry or any other advancement in the sport just because it wasn’t done in the past. My name is Eric Edwards and I love my kite. ;-)

So the quick run down: on free flight #2 I tried the kite but he ignored the bait and just flew around. Flight 3 and 4 were without kite, I let him fly and served a few pigeons, he got up to about 50’ and did check out the field some. Flights 5 and 6 we were back to the kite. On flight 5 he immediately recognized the bait and rang right up to 30’ and pulled it down. Day 6 he went up 200’ immediately to the bait.

I’m sure it’s just me but I’m much more comfortable with the direction of my training right now. I’ve trained enough birds to know that the key to training any behavior is clearly communicating to the bird what you want. The quicker the bird understands what you’re asking of it the quicker your training will progress.

For me it’s all about hawking game as soon as possible and I think the kite will get me in the field quicker. I plan to have him up to 1,000’ by the end of the week, serving game under him. Next week we’re hawking. (that’s the plan right now anyway)

I really appreciate ALL the advice and input I’ve gotten on training Doc and I’m always all ears. I’ll take all the free advice I can get.