The Wiley approach

[antwerptom03]

I tried this with my first round so time will tell if it worked for us

 

 

The good article "What is Enough?", written by the very experienced Bill Verco for the July 2003 issue of the ARPJ struck a chord with me and reminded me of a method for training young birds, as proposed by Jim Wiley, a former fancier from Florida, USA. It's a method that seems to have a lot of merit, and is based on the author's knowledge of animal behaviour which he puts to good use in training youngsters. Wiley's idea is to develop champion racing pigeons, with the whole process to begin with the training of youngsters. He details many of his ideas in a neat little 44-page book called "Winning" which he must have published himself, because it doesn't contain the name of a publisher to pass along to you.

 

Before continuing, I think that the following direct quote from Wiley's book might appropriately set the stage for the rest of this article: "....Let's assume.....we've just moved our first round of youngsters to the young bird loft. How do we recognize and develop the champion? Well, don't try to recognize the champion, treat them ALL as though they were.

 

Think about this. If you knew that EVERY youngster on the team was a champion, would you treat them any differently? I think most of us would. Many do just the opposite. The assumption is, they're all bums; it's 'fly or die' with the hopes that the cream will come to the top. Well, for every ounce that surfaces, a quart curdles. Mismanagement of young birds can ruin bad and good pigeons."

 

Jim Wiley was a professional dog trainer. Some years ago he had read a book called "New Knowledge of Dog Behavior" which dealt with the development of the Seeing-Eye Dog program in the USA. Research had determined that success in the program was critically linked to the age at which a pup was exposed to training. In the beginning, pups were about six months old when their seeing-eye training began. The problem was that at that age, the failure rate for these animals was about 75%! So on balance, only 25 of every 100 dogs that started the program at six months of age would be trained successfully as seeing-eye dogs -- definitely a pretty dismal percentage.

 

When this important research became available, training schools began structured work with these animals at the very young age of seven weeks! Result: the success rate leaped to 90% in pups from the same breeding stock that had failed previously! It seems that researchers had tapped into the significant fact that the brains of these weeks-old animals were highly receptive and able to absorb very quickly, many of the basic requirements of the training program.

 

On the basis of this successful work with these dogs, Wiley felt that the same principles could be just as easily applied to the training of young pigeons. He knew that the traditional methods of handling young pigeons meant that, after weaning and once they had begun to fly, they spent the next many weeks ranging over the city and countryside in the collective security of the flock, obviously with no chance for the development of individuality. Much later on, serious training would begun, with all birds tossed together. They would circle and mill around the release point for various lengths of time, and eventually arrive home. Not all birds in the flock used their abilities, and some birds just stayed with the flock. Even those birds that oriented quickly would be reluctant to leave the security of the flock. Eventually, the flock would learn enough navigational skills, and a certain collective performance level would be achieved. However, the potential of individual birds in the flock was not well developed under this system. Attempts to single-toss at this late stage became more difficult because of the now well-ingrained flock mentality.

 

On the basis of the positive results from the Seeing-Eye program, however, he concluded that the training of young pigeons should not begin late, as in the traditional manner, but rather as soon as these youngsters begin to range away from the area of the loft -- an idea which to me seems to square quite well with Bill's views about letting youngsters range out for three weeks before training begins. Accordingly, Wiley's own training program began at the time the birds began to range out, starting with single-up tosses from 2, 5, and 8 km, and ending at 16 km, all from any direction on the compass. No bird was tossed with a flock until this initial training had been completed. These birds had to develop their own abilities before they were influenced by the flock. He believed that this procedure taught youngsters to leave the training point quickly, and not wait for the flock. This early training seemed to stay with the birds, and gave them the confidence to rely on their own navigational abilities.

 

Later on, about four weeks before the race season, these early-trained youngsters begin regular training, starting at 16 km. They were kept at this distance until they left instantly. Then they were jumped to double the distance and kept there until they learned to leave quickly. Then the distance was doubled again and the process repeated. They were sent to the first race station once, and then were trained from 60 km in the morning and 30 km in the evening. Unquestionably, this process requires a lot of work, but Wiley believes that the results provide a tremendous amount of satisfaction for years to come. If time is a problem for you, Wiley suggests choosing a few select youngsters from your "Sweetheart Pairs" to see how the system works. He thinks you'll smile a lot!

 

According to Wiley, the next important step is to give young pigeons a good reason for leaving a flock of circling pigeons. This is done after the birds have been trained for about two weeks. One morning, he takes his youngsters to the loft of a fancier at least 8 km away, and releases these youngsters when the other fancier turns out his birds for exercise. The two flocks get together, circle a while, and eventually, his birds break away and head for home. Now, the only birds that are fed are those that home in the first group. Late arrivals go without feed. That afternoon, the process is repeated, but this time, his own birds don't hang around as long, especially those that made a mistake and weren't fed in the morning. This method has to be done only a few times before a team will "bounce off" a circling team of pigeons and head for home almost instantly. Wiley believes that the same thing happens on race day, and that birds trained in this way will leave the race point and the other birds instantly, and head directly for home.

 

Thirdly, he believes that youngsters need to be trained to break from other birds going in the same direction. He accomplishes this by getting together with a fancier on the opposite side of town, and training together from about 60 km. Three to five birds from each loft are released together. At first some birds will be pulled one way or the other, but soon, he finds birds taking about the same time to home to both lofts, indicating that they have learned to break.

 

As an aside from my own experience I find that, rather than single-tossing, it's just as useful to toss old and young birds in groups of two and three, a method that instills confidence in the individual bird, and also tends to break down the flock mentality. The other thing I've found to be very useful with youngsters, especially for the early, shorter tosses up to about 35-40 km, is to make sure they are a bit hungry, and to turn them out for morning loft exercise first, to get the exuberant flying out of their systems. After they are called in from exercise they are then taken training, starting at about 8 km. Having flown their fill during loft exercise, these birds soon learn to leave the training point quickly and head for home. As they get the idea during these early tosses, the distances are gradually increased. I tried to convince a fellow fancier to try this method, but instead, without loft exercise first, he would take his birds directly to 2 km and release them. Result: they didn't return home for 1-2 hours after release, because they were still "full of fly". To me, there isn't much point in training in this way, because the birds are fit and want to fly rather than homing directly from these shorter tosses. To me, loft exercise before training from the shorter points is the ideal way to get their heads around the point of training, ie, to home quickly from any training or race point.

 

While my birds are loft exercising, I remove the drinkers from the loft. When these youngsters trap from morning exercise, they get only a very light sprinkle of feed as a reward, but no water. Then within 15 minutes, I take them on these shorter training tosses. I find that youngsters that have had this pre-training loft exercise will circle much less at the liberation point and head for home much more quickly than those taken right from the loft without being exercised first. It's a good method to concentrate their brains on their normal hunger and slight fatigue, as well as on the thirst they developed during loft exercise. For tosses longer than 35- 40 km, I eliminate the morning loft exercise, and take them training right from the loft.

 

Some or all of the foregoing may not be possible or even practical for individual Australian fanciers to accomplish, given the nature and timing of the young bird season in your area, and the ever-present falcon problem that may prevent single-tossing or even tossing in small groups, etc.. For those who are able try the Wiley approach, the rewards can be considerable, especially in big competition. It's worth considering.

 

[westburylofts]

great topic

 

well worth a read

 

has given me somthing to think about in more depth

 

ray

[blue bar]

where can one get a hold of this book very interesting article

[jimmy white]

very interesting article,,,pigeons are naturally gregarious, and fly more confident in a batch, but if their trained at an early stage to have confidence flying solo, will definately benefit them even later in life, but i would only do this after a little experience, this would take time but would be worth it. the only thing i would say is ,if you are singling them up, make sure there is enough space between them, as they will take longer to clear, to begin with, if you put them up before the first one has cleared, they will then get in to the habit of flying round waiting on the next one going up, only my opinion

[REDCHEQHEN]

Appropriate article for this time of year - very interesting information.

[Guest shadow]

Good artical but would take up a lot of time to liberate a team of youngsters single up leaving at least 20 mins between each bird as they do not clear very well on their own I have found it better to put them up in pairs.

[hooky]

i have let young birds up on there own .15-20 miutes between and have not found much difference in doing it!!because i keep just as many old birds as young i like to let up in three's two old birds and one young .it shore sorts out the young stuff and if they can't keep up they are left behind to fend for thereselfs