I'm in the process of imprinting a male Gos and always willing to listen
Originally posted by: chris "Do any of you fly or want to fly imprints? I fly a imprint gos and a imprint gyr saker witch i prefer over parent reared birds."
im in the middle of doing a female goss at the moment,right we all know that you get more noise with an imprint,but there is screeming and then there are screemers,and i do not think it is all to do with food but more on how you behave with your goss at the different stages of its growth,and i think the most important time is at around 40 days old just when he changes from nice chick to nasty chick overnight i think this is when it can all go wrong,because at this time he will have just started to flap around the house so will need hard penning as well soon he has started trying to bully you and become more voical,so this is where you have to play I DONT CARE WHAT YOU DO game,I know its hard when you got a bird trying to attact you,but never back off,he will stay like this untill he getting fit and chassing, but what i do when i first start hard penning is leave a lure in his avairy so that when i whistel he kills that and not me.if you have any thing else i hopfully can help you with just ask.
Thanks for the reply. I've only just found out about this forum.
This is my first Gos. My previous experiance has been will a Male Harris that I had for 8 years.
My Gos is 10 weeks old, hard penned and just started calling last week when I dropped his weight to far. (the food was there but he did not eat it, this was last Wednesday).
I put his weight back up and he stopped calling.
Reducing his weight again 1/2 oz per day resulted in him calling at about 1lb 13oz.
At 1lb 11oz he starts calling in the morning (this Wednesday) when he detects movement in the house. Also calls when on the fist / on his bow whilst training.
I'm training him to the glove at the moment.
I don't know how much he calls during the day but I'm concerned about potential problems with neighbours.
I got him at 20 days from a breeder that assured me he had got him dish feeding by 10days and that he gives the food when he's asleep. He did however, give him food to show me he was eating on that ocasion. I've either given food when asleep or placed the food elsewhere and moved him to the food / put the food in the imprint tank and then returned him to the tank. So I hope that food imprinting is not the problem.
the first thing that concerns me is you say your training to the glove,i hope your not flying him to the fist! because with a imprint you should always fly them to the lure and just use a tit bit to pick him up, i would not start flying him to the fist untill halve way through the season when he is taken a good head of quarry.He will be a lot more independent by then.I think the swung lure is the best tool you can have with a gos, so if you are flying to the fist i would stop now and use the lure before he becomes a screemer.
are you flying him free? i always fly mine free from day one before i start dropping the weight i dont think you could ever lose a imprint i have left them out all night before now if they play up but you want to see them in the morning just one call and they come out of a wood like a rocket.
any thing else i will be more than happy to help if i can
I was training him to the fist. As a result his behaviour has become poor and he is screeming.
I have had the lure in with him and fed him up on it whilst he was growing, but he did not realy seam to like it much.
I tried him on the lure and fist this morning and got a better response.
My aim was to eventually get him responding to both the fist (for wet weather) and the lure (for distance).
From your advice I will switch to the lure only from now on and get him onto the fist later in the season.
I'm not flying him free at the moment as my telemetry is playing up. I've odered a new transmitter and when I get this I intend to let him off the creance.
Have you ever hacked an imprint. I'm contemplating doing this (with decent telemetry) if it will help stop him screeming.
sounds like its all going well,just glad i could help,that is the only problem with a imprint gos you tend to enter them early in the year so there is a big risk of killing game out of season just try to avoid these places best you can untill later on.keep me posted
I've tried to avoid Moorhen repeatedly as there are quite a lot on the golfcourse. Normally if I see them before he does I change direction and do not let him go. But accidents happen.
I went on other ground to get away from the Moorhen and the golfers. The first duck was a complete suprise (to me) and not very spectacular.
The second one was a long tail chase that I expected to end in failure for the Gos. I will be avoiding these places until the season opens.
All my intentional slips have been for Rabbit, Pigeon, Crow & Magpie. But once off the fist if something else gets up....
I have never read such utter rubbish in all my years as a falconer, by the 'falconry terms' you have used out of context you obviously are in no position to be advising others. It is fair to assume your methods have worked for you and I am not disputing that, but imprints done correctly make no noise anyway and aggression is only a sign that you have done a poor job of rearing the bird. Leaving a lure in an aviary to be played with whenever the bird chooses is as good as keeping the birds intended quarry in the same cage IE (if you don't already know) your hawk will become so accustomed to its presence that she will learn to ignore it, Hardly what you want for a recall devise. Also you should, when entering your hawk, not wonder around willynilly chasing whatever comes out, you must TRAIN your hawk to chase and catch what you want her to, not what she wants to, you know who is training who? Flying to the fist is not why the imprint screems it is the way she is reared. however those of you with poorly imprinted birds can look forward to the bird becoming quieter when she is properly entered and feeling more independent.
The simplist way to prove that a screemer is badly imprinted is this: When a parent reared Gos sees an adult Gos she does not screem at it for food. If you by hand rearing, take the place of that parent why should she screem at you.
Don't take my advice I have never met or seen your bird let alone know her as well as you therfor I am in no position to advise, The same applys to everyone elses advise, just because it works for them and their bird doesn't mean it will work for you and yours.
JUST TO SAY THAT THIS IS THE WAY I HAVE DONE ALL 3 OF MY IMPRINTS AND THAT IS HAS WORKED FOR ME!
I HAVE NEVER SAID THAT IT WILL WORK FOR ANYONE ELSE IM JUST SHARING MY THOUGHTS WITH FELLOW FALCONERS AND IF ANY OF IT WORKS FOR THEM THEN IVE DONE SOMETHING RIGHT.
I THOUGHT THAT THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS SITE WAS TO SHARE WITH EACH OTHER THINGS WE HAVE LEARND THROUGH OUR OWN EXPEREANCES AND IF THAT MEANS TRYING NEW THINGS THEN SO BE IT,(BECAUSE IF WE ALL STUCK TO THE SO SAY CORRECT WAY OF DOING THINGS THEN NONE OF US WOULD LEARN ANYTHING,AND ONLY KINGS WOULD BE FLYING PEREGRINES.)
I understand what you are saying Chris and you are right about us helping each other out, but you have to remember that there are complete novices who may aspire to learn falconry, not through the usual chanels but by compiling information off sites like this. As I said, I do not claim to know your bird or anyone elses and we should all make clear the fact that we have developed our skill and experiences with our birds ( so whoever is giving the advice it should not be taken literally )and there is no "so said right way" of doing things. There is,however , the chance that someone may misuse your detailed advice, for example a novice training a falcon may have seen what you wrote about hanging the lure in her aviary, by the time this novice has realised this is not the thing to do, the falcon could be in a very bad way. I see from your corespondance with danny that your experiences have been of great help to him and his bird. Which help you are to be commended for. But you must consider the people who may read your advice and not ask questions. I have trained and flown over 300 Falcons incorperating 22 species 15 subspecies and 18 Hybrid/tribrid and quadbrids most of which I have bred myself, but whenever I offer advice I always say to the recipient dont follow my advice to the letter, read between the lines, evaluate my experiences and apply what you feel is suitable. Until you have seen my birds doing what I have told you they do you have no idea whether or not I am to be believed or listened to.
