Randy is correct. Shimada does load a (left) dove backwards. The reason he gives is so that the dove sees him. I think Shimada is perhaps the best in the business.

Having said that, I don't agree with the method and have never found it necessary to toss the bird backwards for that reason. A good light man can usually get a wayward dove back to you. If the house lights are down, the dove is coming to the stage.

I can't say that I've never had a dove go on a tour of the theater. But once landed and tossed back into the air they've always come back to stage. People ask how you train a dove to do that! (How would you stop them?) They know the dove feeding guy!

Bob
Magic By Sander

In the end, whatever you can get your bird to do consistently is probably the way to go. But once again, I think tossing forward and a circle-return is best. And I prefer training your birds to return to you in several brightly lit, busy rooms. I've done this and the bird remembers to come to you regardless of what the environment looks like.

That's correct Chris. I always say, "whatever floats your boat" just make sure the bird isn't with you when it sinks. I mentioned Shimada earlier in the topic and I'm in no way saying he's wrong. I'm nowhere close to being in his league and never will be but if you watch his production, the bird comes out in a blur because the audience is seeing it from behind. Tossing it out head face, gives the audience the full view of the bird and to me, it just looks more magical, prettier and safer for the dove.

I have gone against all the methods of training a dove to return fly.

I did not use bright light, Hallsways, black walls or places with no other place to land.

But for me I have found that I have a greater trust in my birds because I can toss then in a room full of people and purching place, yet they always return to me.

So my thinking is that if they prefer to come to me rather than anywhere else when they have other choices then I am on a good track.

Michael

Michael,

I think you have simply accomplished the mission there. That is that the dove has to identify you as the "safe place". The other practices are just ways to limit errors in the journy to desired behavior. The errors are not required!

Congratulations!

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

100% I agree with Bob that the doves must see you as the "safe place" for landing when they fly out or when you toss them out.

My training with my doves has been with food, meaning they eat in my hand and when I first open their cage they wait to hear me call them to fly to my hands.
So a few times when the doves are eating I take one at a time and throw him away from me to have him do a mid-air turn to come back to my hand.

Bruce if you have seen Lance Burton’s show then you notice that his doves land on a lamp. Dove Marker is the place the dove gets to hang out when they are not in the cage. I did find that using a dove marker in my children show was not a good idea. The children would not take their eyes off the dove and kept saying can I touch him.

I am working on a routine where I place 6 jumbo cards on a 3 feet wand that has clips to the jumbo cards. First I have a volunteer pick one of the six small card and the dove or I not to see the card, then I toss the dove to audience and he will fly to the wand and land on the jumbo card that the volunteer has the small card, I then say I know what your thinking that the dove will always fly to the same spot, so I turn the jumbo cards around and change the order of the jumbo cards on the wand and the dove will fly to the right card.

I will put it on video on a web site soon so you can see what I am talking about,
But if you think you know how I have been training my doves to find a card, then e-mail me and I will tell you if you are right.
maro@iammaro.com


Maro