Kabootar baazi: how do you train a young bird for its first long toss?

The method is still mostly passed on by watching rather than writing, which means it mostly stays inside one loft.

Walk us through your programme for a young bird, from settling to its first real distance. Distances, weeks, what you feed at each stage, and what you learned the year you lost birds.

Settling is everything. Agar bird apne loft ko ghar nahi samajhta, to distance ka koi faida nahi. Main 6 hafte tak sirf loft ke aas paas rakhta hoon, koi toss nahi.

Trapping. Teach them to come in, not just to come back. A bird sitting on the roof for twenty minutes has lost you the race even if it flew brilliantly.

Theek hai, apna pura programme likh deta hoon. Rawalpindi, twenty-odd years, and I have lost enough birds to know which mistakes are expensive.

Weeks 1–6: settling. Koi toss nahi.
Bird ko loft aur us ke aas paas ka ilaqa yaad karna hai. Sham ko loft ke bahar bitha do, andar khana do. Yeh phase skip karne wala har banda pehle toss pe birds kho deta hai. Chhe hafte lambe lagte hain, lekin yehi buniyad hai.

Weeks 6–8: open loft.
Roz sham ko ghumne do, khud wapas aane do. Whistle aur khane ka time fix rakho — signal wohi hona chahiye har roz.

First tosses, aur yeh dheere jaana hai:

• 1 km, loft ke saamne wali side se. 3-4 baar.
• 5 km. 3 baar.
• 15 km. 3 baar.
• 30 km, 50 km, 80 km — har distance kam se kam do baar, aur agli distance tab jab pichli pe pura group time pe wapas aa jaye.

Agar kisi distance pe birds late aayen ya kho jayen, aage mat barho. Wapas ek step piche jao. Yeh sab se zaroori usool hai aur sab se ziada tora jata hai.

Feed:

• Settling ke doran: light — jau, thora bajra. Bhookay nahi, lekin bhaari bhi nahi.
• Training ke doran: protein barhao — matar, masoor, thora sa til.
• Toss se pehle wali raat: halka khana. Bhara pait bird ko slow karta hai.
• Wapas aane ke foran baad: full feed. Yeh bird ko sikhata hai ke ghar aane pe inaam milta hai. Yehi asal training hai.

Weather. Yeh woh sabaq hai jo mujhe mehnga para.
2019 me maine 60 km ka toss kiya jab dhund thi. Bais birds gaye, nau wapas aaye. Ab main teen cheezein dekhta hoon aur koi bhi ho to toss cancel: dhund, tez hawa jo saamne se ho, aur baarish ke asaar. Aur June-July me sirf subah 6 baje se pehle, warna garmi maar deti hai.

Aur aakhri baat: young bird ko us waqt tak mat bhejo jab tak woh puri tarah moult se nikal na aaye aur wazan pura na ho. Jaldi bhejna sab se aam ghalti hai.

"Agar kisi distance pe birds late aayen to aage mat barho, ek step piche jao." Yeh line pure thread ka nichor hai. Log hafte ke hisaab se schedule banate hain, birds ke performance ke hisaab se nahi.

Bilkul. Calendar bird ko nahi dekhta.

Not a pigeon man but the "reward on arrival, not before departure" principle is exactly the same thing that makes recall work in dogs and parrots. Interesting that everyone arrives at it independently.

Is saal is programme ko follow kiya, thora modify kar ke. 80 km tak pura group time pe. Pehli baar aisa hua hai.