Art of Taming Gamecock

Taming a cock is a feature in the conditioning process most keeps omit entirely. Personally, I consider it of the utmost importance. Just as important as the feed and exercise parts. Probably more important. By means of feed and bench work you can't improve a cock's hpysical strength a great deal, but by proper taming you can improve his readiness for battle 1,000 percent. Look at it this way: You bring a cock which has been accustomed to quiet surroundings and familiar people into a strange place, slap a set of heels on him, then take him to a brilliantly lighted arena with a different sort of pit surface, and a mob of strangers raising a racket like a boiler factory and expect him to ignore all these strange sitghts and sounds and turn in a superb exhibition of fighting. Under similar circumstances great opera singers have been known to become distraught and they could not utter a sound.

Gamecocks react the same way. Especially the high-strung ones which have been all keyed up anyway. I've see high-class cocks so confused by all the noise, lights, and commotion that they would not even leave their scores, and were killed before they lifted a foot. Cocks can become accustomed to airplanes passing overhead or a barking dog racing along the fence, but it takes some time and it's up to you to get them aquainted with such surroundings. Here's how: Start in early when you first select your show four weeks before fight day, and as you pass his coop, drop in a little piece of white bread about the size of a dime. In a few days he will be looking for the bread and learn that when you stop by his coop that you are not going to harm him but rather that you have something for him which he likes. Pretty soon most of them will take bread from your fingers. Fine. You have made a good start. If he doesn't , don't insist, but drop the bread gently before him and move on. He will tame down in time.

When you have to catch the cock to move him from one pklace to another do so very gently. Take your time. Avoid getting him excited or making him wild. If he goes to ramming or flying around, leave him alone for a while and let him settle down. Then, when you get him in hand, pet him and rub him slowly and gently for a minute or so before placing him in his new quarters. When you do set him down, do it slowly and gently. Don't heave him into his new coop. Let him know that you are not going to hurt him, that he can have cinfidence in you. Offer him a bite of apple while you have him in hand, if he accepts it, so much the better.

Now when you first bring a stag into the conditioning house, that is a particularly critical time. Everything there is new to him. Take it slow and easy. always have some pieces of bread or chopped apple on the work bench for him. Place him gently on the work bench, let him look around and get aquainted with the place for 20- 25 seconds, keeping your hands on him gently all the time. Then, when he gets ready to walk around, as he will in a few seconds, walk around with him very slowly and gently.

He may even eat some of the "goodies" you have placed there for him. But keep your hands on him gently all the time, and make no quick or fast moves. After a minute or so, lift him gently off the board, rub him for a few seconds, and then carefully ease him into his cock stall, releasing him slowly, and quietly close the door.

I've gone into this with much detail which sounds like kindergarten stuff, yet I know countless men who have been conditioning roosters for 60 years who to this moment have their twice a day "go-around" with the cocks in their care. They never fail to remark when they visit me how tame my birds are and what a tussle they have with theirs. My birds aren't tame. By nature they are not as tame as theirs are since mine are more high strung. It's all a matter of how you handle them, and particular, how you start in.

The first few times you taka a cock out of a conditioning stall is another critical time. Do this very quietly and very gently. By all means avoid getting him "het up" and flouncing around in there. Better to leave him in there than to get him all excited and fighting you. Sometimes you can divert his attention with feed in his cup so that you can get your hands on him gently without raising a fuss. Once in hand remove him slowly from the cock stall, pet him for a few seconds, then put him on the work bench where the "goodies" are, and walk him around for a while as you did the first time.

Don't attempt to "work" him those first few trips. Rather, concentrate on having him aquainted with the place and liking it there. Another dandy tidbit to put on the work bench for taming a cock are little pieces of unsalted butter about the size of a pea. They love it; dance and jumparound calling the hens annd forgewt all about you and being afraid. While he is in that mood, take your hands off him and back away a step or two so that he owns the work bench himself. It's his now.

Then slowly approach him with your hands down rather than extended as if to catch him and when you get alongside him, slowly and gently put your hands back on him, move him around a little, pick him up, pet him a few times, and carefully return to his stall. All this seems like an awful lot of detail and actually takes longer to read than to do it, but if done right the first few times it pays big dividends, and saves a tremendous amount of time for all the remainder of the keep, to say nothing of avoiding countless scratches and bruises to yourself. In a couple of days you should be able to open the cock stall door and have the cock come out to you by himself, fly to the work bench, crow and strut around without your laying a hand on him. That's when you'll be glad you spent all that care with him at the beginning. Now you can work him with pleasure instead of engaging in a "free for all" twice a day. That same relationship carries over when you move him from pen to pen. He will be right at the door waiting for you to pick him up and carry him to new quarters. He always enjoys changes.

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 multi-day 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.