Any ideas on how to help either distract or keep him from continuing to taste test my ears?.
The fact that this behavior has been thus reinforced means it will be somewhat difficult to break the association. Difficult, but not impossible.
that either the trips might be too long in duration for his comfort,
Agreed, I have told myself to change up the routine. Our walks are often long. While we stop and talk to many, its hard to find places just to sit, hang out and do nothing except watch the world go by. So I a diligently scoping out areas.
the sudden shift in temperature when you take him out between the interior of your house and the cold of outside might be causing him some discomfort
Nope, his high energy seemed higher consistent as the weather temps slowly dropped. I consistently take him out every day, since August last year. There are exceptions however if the sun was out and the wind wasn't blowing, temps went from 95 to 45. Temps in our area are now closing in at 70 now. he does seem to be more relaxed. Could be he cant get rid of the winter coat he is wearing now.
A shift greater than ten degrees at once can be uncomfortable and stressful for them.
Sure there is minor shivering. however its easy for me to feel the heat through his feet and his beak. If he was starting to cool down, I took him in. Funny thing is that I noticed he was shivering slightly today.
there might be aspects of those trips that he's not as thrilled about. So duration-wise, you might want to try either making the trips significantly shorter or finding a way to break up the trip into shorter segments.
Agreed, see above. Mostly what I am trying to do is break up the long walk more, find places to just sit and chill. This year we are adding the concrete jungle.. Downtown Wilmington.
At least, you could try breaking up the socialization aspects. Basically giving him time in between meeting people to "catch his breath", so to speak.
That naturally occurs in that, while I am in a very urban area. I have found very few people en masse. Everyone is in their corners glued to those silly little brain rotter than they think make them oh so_______ Over 8 hours today, each of the est. 10 interactions were 10m long each
As for the cold, thankfully it's getting warmer now. Guess we can tackle the cold issue in another post
Not necessary. He and I both are very comfortable with his acclimation to climate change
To properly pull this off, you need to remain close enough to home that you can give a proper timeout. (There are too many distractions to do a good timeout outside.)
This is a new idea. The interesting thing about that is that now that I think about it. He is spending most of his time awake outside. I dont like the word correction however he does get certain uhh. vocal and physical responses from me. That lasts five minutes.
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This will likely take time, and you'll need to be consistent. Reward proper behavior enthusiastically. Jolly wound up replacing the ear nibble with rubbing his beak against my cheek. Definitely an acceptable compromise.
Awww. Interesting fact with Rudy. While he talks, his vocabulary is growing, he doesn't talk on command. The only consistent trigger is when the sun drops below the horizon 10-20 minutes total. the funny thing is he seemingly wants or needs to bury his beak right against my ear against temple. A favorite response of mine is to tell him." Rudy! I can hear you fine! quit yelling in my ear!"
The hormonal changes I haven;t really seen yet, however the dominance thing is subtly occurring. I kept him out longer till 9 tonight, he went to his favorite perch in front of the TV and went thru his preening ritual.
I am changing the routine of the last year. Big Picture, I need to quit, literally walking around so much.
is at now has been easy, a lot easier than raising children however I feel strongly that having my own children, the success has been made every aspect dirt simple. Right onto running into random people who can take those beautiful shots.
