OK well earlier this week I posted about my dove flying back, and her not doing so.. LOL..

I was told to make her face you.. the toss her from one hand to the other and get farther and farther away. Because when she gets tossed out during a show, she is then in turn looking for you to perch. Now I was doing a perfect job tossing her away from me and just moving my finger farther and farther away from my body. Which method would be the correct, or simplest way. Shes a young dove.. maybe two or three months?..

Thanks in advance,
Justin David

Justin, you have to take it in steps. Let the dove jump or fly from one hand to the other. Start at a short distance and gradually separate the hands. You should spend about a week at each interval. Eventually, the dove will seem to fly from hand to hand on it's own without you doing a tossing motion.

Once the distance is about 3 feet, start tossing her in an arc. Difficult to explain but have the bird sitting with it's tail facing the rear. Gently toss it out slightly left or right depending on which hand you are tossing from or which way you want the dove to turn. It will come back. Having the bird face you when you toss it out is awkward and you wouldn't be doing an effect with it in this position anyway.

Total training by the way will take about 6 weeks.

Thanks for the great advice.. I guess I had it wrong, but now I will improve. Shes still a goofball when it comes to flying lol.. shes likes to crash.

Take it easy,
Justin

How much should you pratice with them? how many minutes?

Attach the dove's invisible dove harness to a humming bird reel.

-just kidding. I'd only work with the birds for about five tosses. You can tell when the bird gets tired and you don't want to overwork them.

sperris

Hard to define the number of minutes to practice. Each bird is different but the key, as Dan said is not to tire them out.
Let them perch on your finger for awhile, carry them around with you. Stroke their feathers from head to tail. Do a few tosses. You'll know when they've had enough tossing. Breathing becomes heavier and they will start to drop a little instead of flying to the other hand. As time goes by, the length of actual tossing time gets longer as they get stronger.
I work with each of my birds for 15 minutes minimum each day even if only to hold them on my finger.