Mental conditioning of Gamecocks
This 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 physical 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 sights 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 acquainted 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 place 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 confidence 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 acquainted 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.
