Taming the Game fowl
Roosterman No. 11; January, 2012
Taming the Game fowl
After a few days of this and the cock is thoroughly at home in the cock house and thinks the place is his, it ' s time to introduce him to noise and confusion. The best thing I know for this is a portable radio. Turn it to some station which carries on a continuous program of news, music and weather, turn it up full blast and let him listen to Rock ' n Roll, tom toms and all the rest of the noises including human shouting until he becomes as sick and accustomed to it as you are.
Sports events are especially good with all the shouting. Also make plenty of noise while you are in the cockhouse. Drop pans or buckets on the floor. Get him use to them and teach him they will not harm him. Let people come to the cock house and blab away while you ' re working the birds. Let him get use to them. He will encounter plenty of noise and confusion at the pit, so let him get use to them ahead of time. If a cock will be fought under electric lights, by all means work him on the training table under electric lights so that he will become accustomed to them. Likewise, if he is to fight at night, spar him at night and have the pit floor as nearly as possible like the pit floor where he will fight. Bring the radio to the sparring pit and have it blaring away as loud as you can while the sparring is going. on. I have a couple of little 3x2x2 portable, collapsible scratch pens which I take with me on multiday meets. These are setup with some shucks or straw for litter in or about the cock house. After the cock has been worked I placed him in there for three minutes while I work the next cock. Throw a few grains of feed in there and he makes the straw fly. Placing him in there and taking him out also adds to the taming. Do it slowly, and gently so as to build up confidence between you and him. Many times I ' ve carried the birds on a long night haul, and when they arrived at their destination were a bit squeamish with the new quarters. But, five minutes in the familiar scratch coops and everything was alright again. They owned the place. That ' s the attitude you want to develope. All these little things help to obtain it.
When heeling the cocks I greatly prefer to do the holding and to let someone else tie on the heels. I can tell the fellow how I want the heels put on and watch him while he does it, but I can ' t tell the cock that the fellow who is holding him in the most uncomfortable position possible, which is what most of them do, is a friend of mine and relax. The cock does not understand this. So
I ' ll do the holding myself. The cock is used to me and my hands, so he is relaxed and comfortable and everything is fine.
It ' s the same way with handling. By no stretch of the imagination am I an expert handler, but the cock knows me and is used to my way of handling him. Accordingly, he is more relaxed with me amid all the noise and confusion than he would be in the hands of a stranger. If you or the man who put up the birds are not going to handle, at least have whoever has done the conditioning bring him into the pit, weigh him, walk him around while he becomes accustomed to the surroundings and then pass him to the handler just before the start of the battle.
So that is about all I can think to tell about taming a cock. Remember always that a cock cannot produce more than a fraction of his potential ability in the pit if he is distracted by the strange sights, sounds, and surroundings. It is your duty as a conditioner to aquaint him with those conditions ahead of time. Don ' t condemn him as a dunce because he just stands there and gets killed in his bewilderment. Call yourself a dunce for not aquainting with such conditions in advance. That ' s what I ' ve called myself, and worse names, many times.
27