In this episode, Al talks to Nick Adair of the "Gun Dog it Yourself" Podcast. Nick tells us about his dogs, and why he selected the breeds he did. We discuss his training philosophy, and a recurring theme of his podcast - "Trainer Fights"! We discuss the use of Positive Punishment (listen to Fat Bird, Ugly Dog,  Episode 5 "Operant Conditioning 101", if you are unfamiliar with the term) . Confusion often exists between "whoa" and "steadiness" - Nick gives his definition of "whoa", and indicates how it differs from  "steadiness".  We have all heard the saying "birds make a bird dog" - Nick modifies the saying, and explains his reasoning for doing so. We conclude our conversation with Nick recalling one of his most memorable hunts. And, of course, Al's Rapid Fire Questions.

GDIY website - https://www.gundogityourself.com/

 In this episode Brian Millsap (USFWS-retired) and Gordon Court (Province of Alberta Species at Risk Biologist) join me to discuss aspects of peregrine natural history, events surrounding listing and de-listing, and the events that led to a limited harvest of hatch year peregrine falcons in the United States.  

In this episode Brian Millsap (USFWS-retired) and Gordon Court (Province of Alberta Species at Risk Biologist) join me to discuss aspects of peregrine natural history, events surrounding listing and de-listing, and the events that led to a limited harvest of hatch year peregrine falcons in the United States.

In this episode, I run through fundamental terms associated with operant conditioning. This episode is presented in preparation for future guests that use the approach to train their falconry birds and/or bird dogs.

For questions or comments, please visit Fat Bird, Ugly Dog on Facebook.

Primary reinforcer - any motivating factor that is essential to survival.  

Secondary reinforcer - also called a Conditioned Reinforcer, is any neutral factor that when paired with a primary reinforcer inherits the reinforcing properties of a primary reinforcer.

Cue - a signal asking for a specific behavioral response that leads to receiving a secondary reinforcer that leads to receiving a primary reinforcer. 

Variable reinforcement - a reinforcement schedule where the secondary reinforcer is provided after every correct behavioral response, but the primary reinforcer is provided randomly or irregularly.

Free shaping - the process of using an animal’s voluntary behaviors to teach it which behavior is desired. 

Structured Shaping - the process of establishing a more complex behavior by selectively reinforcing and building on an existing behavior.

Extinction - the gradual weakening and disappearance of a behavioral response, either wanted or unwanted, due to lack of reinforcement. 

Generalize - the process of ensuring that the wanted behavior is offered consistently under multiple environmental conditions even when distractions are present.

Luring - a method of directing behavior using a primary reinforcer to entice the animal to offer the desired behavior. 

Developing a wanted behavior is just a straightforward application of a 5-step process, as follows:
1.Free shaping
2.Reinforcing
3.Cuing
4.Generalizing
5.Structured shaping

Ultimately, there are only two types of behaviors: those that are wanted and those that are unwanted.

We want to increase the frequency of wanted behaviors and decrease the frequency of unwanted behaviors.

Frequency of wanted behaviors can be increased in 2 ways:

1. You can add something good to the training environment as a reward for the wanted behavior – which is typically referred to as positive reinforcement,
2. You can remove something bad from the training environment as a reward for wanted behavior – which is typically referred to as negative reinforcement.

Similarly, frequency of unwanted behaviors can be decreased in 2 ways:

1. You can add something bad to the training environment as a punishment for the unwanted behavior – which is typically referred to as positive punishment,
2. You can remove something good from the training environment as a punishment for unwanted behavior – which is typically referred to negative punishment.

Note that the terms positive and negative do not equate to good things and bad things, they just mean that a rewarding or punishing reinforcer is added or taken away.

1. Positive Reinforcement – giving a treat as a reward for sitting.
2. Negative Reinforcement – turn e-collar vibrate-mode to off as a reward for recalling.
3. Positive Punishment – turn e-collar vibrate mode to on as a punishment for leaving bed without being released. Once the dog returns to the bed, vibrate mode is switched to off.
4. Negative Punishment –  “retrieve denial” where the opportunity to make a retrieve is taken away as punishment for not remaining steady.

To conclude, it’s not a prerequisite of operant conditioning to use all four reinforcement options in equal proportions. In fact, many dog trainers and likely all falconers do not use positive punishment as part of their training regime.

In this episode I talk to Scott about how he uses the drone to shape high flying behavior in his falcons.

Scott Larsen email:
[email protected]

YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP6YnvrdxRk

Quick release clip
https://www.westernsporting.com/FE3017/balloon-kite-quadcopter-release-parts-complete-or-replacement-parts.html

E. ($15.95): Black Sure-fire Bait Release works flawlessly and is easy to adjust. It is used for food items on the kite or balloon and will give you the confidence to know it will release easily when the hawk grabs the bait. This contains the release clip, snap swivel and custom-made Sampo swivel.

6 instructions for the Perfect Pigeon setup:

1. Never fly your falcon to the drone without bait .  
2. Always have a full charged battery .  
3. Use the “home” function on the drone 
4. Use care and caution in big wind .  
5. Use about an 18” to 24” diameter parachute with about a 20’ to 25’ leader  
6. Make sure the chute can slide out of the release tube with almost zero effort .

10-step routine from start to finish

1. Phase 1 - drone then falcon

• Only fly a Falcon to the drone that has learned to kill and feed itself.  Get that accomplished first.
• Get your Falcon “made” to the drone to where she will chase it up with gusto every single time.  
• Make her chase the drone up.  Make her miss it and have to keep mounting up to catch up to it.  (Don’t over-do it though.  Let her be successful each day before she gives up.  You have to watch this very carefully.) 
• Once she is very fit and taking the bait either in an angled stoop or just on level flight, but enthusiastically every flight, switch her to flying with no drone in the air.

1. Phase 2 - falcon then drone

• Cast her off, with the drone totally ready to launch over behind your truck or somewhere close by.  As she is leaving and wondering what’s up, launch the drone and make her chase it up.
• Each day wait longer until the day when she has the height to overtake the drone in a stoop.  Count that flight as your first real big success.  You WANT her to catch it!
• The next flight, place your drone a couple hundred yards away from where you think she’s going to be mounting up and launch it over there and make her chase it up.
• Keep increasing the time you let her fly and mount up and keep increasing the distance away from you that the drone is launched.  I’ve launched my drone from 500 yards away, no kidding.
• Once she is going the height you want her to mount to, either go hawking, or throw her a bagged “something-or-other” and then, Go Hawking with her!  
• Get her off it as soon as you can .  Don’t let her get Drone Bound!  

For book purchase:

1. Ed Pitcher -  [email protected]
2. Ricardo Velarde - [email protected]
3. Marshall Radio
4. Western Sporting Falconry

1.1. Understanding My Approach

• move beyond “waiting-on overhead” to flying of falcons
• important concepts
  •  success leads to success
  • use categorical thinking to form positive associations
  • use fear levels to manage feeding and weight
  • use fidelity to develop anticipatory behaviors
  • build trust to develop co-operative hunting

1.2. Getting Started

• Main tools
  • seeling, hood, and patience
  • steady hand/routine

1.3. Making Choices

• Primary goal is to choose to allow cognitive development to occur along age-appropriate timeline
• Allow learning by observing other falcons
• wild falcons know they can survive without the falconer; choose to encourage tolerance but not reliance in captive-reared falcons
• choose to allow the falcon to eat rather than to be fed

1.4. Preventing Bates

• use fear level to judge food intake; re-hood and set aside a falcon that stops eating.
• Same with bating; re-hood and set aside a falcon that wants to bate
• ounce  of prevention better than pound of cure
• skipping days is better than skimping on meals
• track g/hr of food processed

1.5. Leaving the Fist

• Not coming to fist; going away from fist to eat
• While feeding on the fist, slowly remove the food from the falcons feet, she should grab it, let her take a few more bites.
• Repeat, but make her reach for it.
• Repeat, but make her jump to retrieve it. Feed her well.
• With each session, progressively increase the distance until flying a few feet
• She is ready to kill her next meal

1.6. Introducing Prey/Quarry

• Mimics the process followed by wild parents
• Falcon on left fist, live prey in right hand
• Falcon will grab and administer lethal bite (cervical dislocation)
•  Leave the falcon for several minutes to pluck and eat
• Gently remove the dead prey from talons
• Re-hood with braces open
• Take dead prey away, unhood the falcon
• Repeat with prey tethered allowing the falcon to pluck and eat for several minutes
• Pick the falcon up on freshly prey, gutted and skinned
• Use tidbits
•  With each session, progressively increase the distance until flying out of the hood without creance across 1/8 mile
• Feed well…avoid flying daily and managing strict weight control as this will later encourage self hunting, which is reinforced when self-hunting is successful.

1.7. Weight Gain

• Time to begin adding weight
•  Falcon should:
  •  immediately search for prey when unhooded
  • Fly strong
  • Chase hard
  • Kill with confidence

1.8. Flying Free

•  Never jumped to fist
• Never called to the lure
• Never relied on the falconer to be fed
• Always been fed well…fly when empty.
• Only flown from A to B ¼ mile to live quarry away from the falconer
• Now the falcon leaves the fist looking for quarry
• Serve as far away as your courage allows (Serve wide).
• Gone from 1.5 g/hr to 3.0 g/hr
• With time and longer periods on the wing, horizontal distance when served transitions to height of pitch – genetic push.
• Serve when the falcon shows deliberate intent in mind set and style

In this episode Al talks to Ed Pitcher about his  philosophical approach to falconry in general, and, how he prepares his birds for a life of hunting with him, in particular. We use his book, “the Flying of Falcons”, which he co-authored with Ricardo Velarde to structure topics of conversation. Ed recounts how he and Ricardo settled on the title for the book, and he defines some terms that the listeners may initially misunderstand (Self actualization, Genetic push, Predatory mindset, Wild mindset, Hunting mindset, and Fueling the motor).  Ed then takes the listeners through his view of the developmental sequences, as follows:

1.1. Genetic Push

• urge to survive and reproduce achieved through predatory mindset

1.2. Early Development 

•  Skill and cognitive development is age-dependent
•  nothing succeeds like success
• successful predators survive and reproduce
• successful predators are also sought after by falconers
•  do everything to let your falcon succeed 

1.3. Categorical Thinking

• concrete/categorical thinking is associated with early cognitive development
• negative experiences can cause fear response and may become fixed
• do everything to ensure new experiences are also positive
• positive interactions also become fixed
• positive concrete thinking is the precursor to trust and fidelity

1.4. Fear Factor

• some fear is good but avoid significant fear response when reclaiming a falcon
• sweet spot is tolerant but slightly fearful and slightly wild
• wild caught falcons are already self-actualized and are more fearful, captive-raised are not self-actualized but are less fearful
• use of water to gauge anticipatory behavior

1.5. Fidelity Factor

• fidelity factor is the propensity to repeat favored behaviors that lead to success which leads to increasing survival probability
• falcons show fidelity for hunting locations, roosting sites, nesting sites, prey species, wintering locations
• appealing to a falcon’s propensity to repeat favored behaviors that lead to success is an alternative strict weight control.
• contributes to the falcon managing it’s own weight

1.6. Trust

•  stems from categorical thinking and fidelity
• leads to co-operative hunting, 2-way trust
• incorporate building of trust in management scheme.

Part 1 of this two-part episode ends with the Ed recounting the story of how a neglected falcon named Buddy reclaimed his status as a self actualized avian predator.

This is the Fat Bird, Ugly Dog Podcast. I’m Al Franke coming to you from central Alberta, Canada, on Falconry Talk Radio. I’m a Longwinger, flying a gyr/peregrine tiercel over a German wire-haired pointer, on ducks and upland game birds. 

The goal of this podcast is to thrash out alternative viewpoints on topics ranging from training philosophy, husbandry, and health of birds and bird dogs to conservation and management of raptors, their main prey species, and the respective habitat that they rely on. 
 In addition, I’ll cover-off themes related to hunter ethics, fair chase, and access to public and private land. I’ll outline efforts that falconers can make to contribute to all of these topics of conversation.

Why “Fat Bird, Ugly Dog”? Well, as unfair as some make think, the “Ugly Dog” moniker reflects my preference for wire-haired pointers within the versatile hunting breeds, and Fat Bird reflects an ambition to fly my falcons as close as possible to what would be considered their natural or ideal body mass, and to do it in a style that mirrors the “wild mind set”, to borrow a phrase from Ed Pitcher!

I hope you’ll tune-in each week to listen to what I anticipate will be persuasive points of view for you to think about.  In Episode 2, Ed Pitcher is my guest, and using his book “The Flying of Falcons” co-authored with Ricardo Velarde as a jumping off point, Ed and I discuss his philosophy in general and the “wild mind set” in particular.