Check,Check, and CrossCheck

Starting out, everyone is safe and sound!
I have a routine of crosschecking everything for JoJo when I leave the house! It is a touch check of every part of his cage that can be opened, or pose a danger if left wrong. It must be done as the last thing in the house as leaving!
This morning, prepping for work, cage, clean water, clean pellets and a bit of seed mix that I use for sprouting-- hey, lets get a new batch of sprouts going!
I put JoJo into his cage, mandatory treat. So now, dogs out, tools to car, food for me later on. Doors open, in and out multiple times!

Yep, got distracted when I decided to start the sprouts and left the side food door open! It is so easy to mess up and make your baby pay the price, my daughter and her friends lost two amazing companions to this same error!
Shaken, but glad I have this mandatory touch routine in place! Obviously though, improvements have to be made!

Well at least you didn't sit on your bird. I sat on Peanut the other day and she let out this loud scream and I almost started crying because I thought I really hurt her. When I walked out on the porch she was on the arm of the chair and I went to put my drink down and within a second she jumped on the seat cushion and I sat right on top of her. She's fine though and I don't think that was a pain scream, I think it was a "hey you're sitting on me, you jerk" scream.


Right when I thought I covered every potential danger to her I go and sit on her .

Whether you are completing the checks or follow a very specific routine any small thing that knocks one off of the 'process' results in missing something! And that something, for some reason, is always the worst possible thing!

Whether its age (every age seems to have its own problems), or screwing it up far too often, I have giving up and now have a 'printed' check list at the door which is plastic covered and has a 'grease' pen to check-off the items.

So far, it seems to be working! With two people and a parrot, its the only way, since each has to check off what they have completed with their color pen.

Its working, so far.

Oh, I just saw something on tv this week...a show about train safety. The Japanese have fantastic train safety record ... partly because of this point and talk method. You see a train operator doing a check..he says the thing, then points at it. It's an off display of talking to himself and pointing around constantly. I wonder...maybe just reading a checklist makes the brain imagine doing it whether it did or not, but pointing and talking take you out of the reading part of the brain?

Kentuckienne said:

Oh, I just saw something on tv this week...a show about train safety. The Japanese have fantastic train safety record ... partly because of this point and talk method. You see a train operator doing a check..he says the thing, then points at it. It's an off display of talking to himself and pointing around constantly. I wonder...maybe just reading a checklist makes the brain imagine doing it whether it did or not, but pointing and talking take you out of the reading part of the brain?

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Yep, I agree, that is why I do a physical touch of the check points!

I would normally talk myself through checks I did with Rio's cage, although I talk to myself normally so nothing new there!

funny how true this is though, the amount of time I would wake up to find I left the cage unlocked was a lot higher than I'd like. Thankfully it had a flip lock on it that would go on automatically and it was in a spot he couldn't reach

LordTriggs said:

I would normally talk myself through checks I did with Rio's cage, although I talk to myself normally so nothing new there!

funny how true this is though, the amount of time I would wake up to find I left the cage unlocked was a lot higher than I'd like. Thankfully it had a flip lock on it that would go on automatically and it was in a spot he couldn't reach

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I added one to my buddies home!

Yes sir, take a page from aviation safety and check, cross check!

While a printed checklist may not be practical in daily life, the formation of specific habit-patterns certainly is. Do the tasks in the same order and you'll find less likelihood of overlooking an item. If distracted, it may be necessary to return to a starting point to avoid overlooking a specific.

In commercial aviation, we do a certain "flow" of tasks from memory in the cockpit and back up the important items with a verbal challenge-and-response checklist performed by both pilots. If interrupted, we start over with the list. Other realms of aviation have a different philosophy and use a "do list." Rather than each pilot perform a "flow" one person reads while the other accomplishes the action. Very time consuming and not proven to be the better format!