Otto the Great Horned Owl just made my day. My week. My whole year.
Moments ago, he stepped on my gloved hand with both feet for the very first time. (I'm trying to be professional as I write this, but really that statement should have an endless string of exclamation points!)
The last few weeks have been building up to this. After months of building trust and seeing his comfortable body language during training sessions, we started working with the glove. First he got a treat when I moved the glove a few inches, then when the glove reached his toes. He was soon ignoring the glove and I began to hold food pieces a little farther away from his beak so he would have to reach for it. Eventually the food was far enough away that he had to take one step on the glove to reach it. And today he decided that it would just be easier to step both feet on the glove to get his food. And he certainly got a big treat for that!
A behavior isn't learned in one instant. Now my challenge is to see if I can persuade him to try it again. Once he's comfortable doing that we'll be able to take it to the next step!
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