What a frightening morning.

[dhorje]

As usual this morning I took Cocoa out for flying exercise. First thing I did a recall which she failed to respond 2 days ago. She did it this time. I pulled the line out from the reel, probably about 100ft long. I commanded her to fly to the monkey bar. She took off as usual and when she was about to land, she changed her mind and flew away from the monkey bar. I thought she would land on the nearby swing but she flew higher and higher. She was heading towards the lamp post. She tried to land on top of the lamp post. I quickly ran towards her hopefully she would fly back to me. Luckily she did not manage to land on the lamp post. The line got caught to the post and she had to fly down and landed on the ground. This had never happened before. I was wondering what happened to her as I was picking her up, removing the line from the leash and rolling back the line. After that, I walked towards the monkey bar and damn, I knew what had happened. They re-painted the monkey bar, the swing and everything. The monkey bar used to be blue and now it is red, green and yellow. The new colors spooked her and she didn't recognize her usual playgym.

I slowly placed her on the monkey bar which is now red. She stood still instead of monkeying around which she normally did. I waited for a few minutes before trying again if she would fly there. I kept the line short about 5 ft. Darn she didn't want to land there and kept on flying in circles until I brought her down to the ground.

 

The new colors upset me as well. I have to start all over again to train Cocoa to fly there. If she had landed on top of the lamp post, I really did not know how to bring her down. I think I had to sit there all day long until she got fed up and flew down to me.

[Luvparrots]

How scary for Cocoa. I'm glad she is all right.

[judygram]

Cocoa picked up on those new colors, they really do notice the simplest things that we wouldn't pay much attention to, yes it will take some time for her to get used to the new colors but she will.

[Janfromboone]

It amazes me how nervous they can get over small changes to their environment. I guess in the Congo things don't change much.

[pearllyn]

WHat a fright. I'm totally paranoid about Alfie getting caught up on something when she's flying outside - that's why I never fly her within range of something she could get tangled on - you never know when something will spook them.