Bandit's Progress

[Cockatielsongs]

Hey everyone!
Been a bit since I last posted I think but anyways. Bandit's progress has been great. He hasn't bitten me in so long I'm delighted. He 100% steps up and is 100% target trained. He always lets me scratch his head and pat his back. Now I'm beginning to do the whole grabbing and lifting part but whenever I leave my hand on his back he wriggles and walks away. I do my training and stuff on the floor in a room because he refuses to co operate on a T stand or table top. If I put him on his training stand or table top he will ignore me and will stop at nothing to get down onto the floor not matter how high it is he will jump onto the floor. So yeah, the floor is the only place he would be interested in training. The bad thing is that being on the floor lets him run away from under my hand, the only time I can leave my hand on his back for like 2 seconds is when he is distracted by something on the floor and when I click and reward he doesn't get what he did right. Other times he would turn around to bite but I remove my hand before he can open his beak. I don't want him to bite because I have a terrible habit of removing my hand. What am I suppose to do?

Other then that he loves training in general, he would always call for me and whenever he sees me he would pace up and down wanting to get out of his cage and train. And for the record, anyone with a biting parrot do trick training, it seriously helps the bird not to bit. When Bandit use to bite a lot I taught him the spinning trick and since then he stopped biting my hand.

[Andromeda]

I do my training and stuff on the floor in a room because he refuses to co operate on a T stand or table top. If I put him on his training stand or table top he will ignore me and will stop at nothing to get down onto the floor not matter how high it is he will jump onto the floor. So yeah, the floor is the only place he would be interested in training. The bad thing is that being on the floor lets him run away from under my hand...

It sounds like you really need to train grabbing and handling on a stand because then he won't be able to run away. If he won't cooperate on a stand or refuses to stay there you can use positive reinforcement to teach him to stay on a stand. Reward him for sitting still for a few seconds, then for a bit longer and a bit longer until eventually he will stay there.

He knows turn in a circle so put him on a stand and cue turn in a circle, reward. Before he has the chance to fly away cue it again, reward. Do sessions like this until he will eventually sit still on the stand. Once he associates the stand with treats he will stay there.

If he absolutely refuses to cooperate and won't turn in a circle, just do targeting instead. If he won't even target you will have to just reward him for sitting on the stand.

This worked with my Poi when I placed him on a table and he was uncomfortable and refused to even move. He wouldn't do any of his tricks or target so I had to start by just giving him treats for standing on the table. Sessions were really short at first because he was so uncomfortable on the table. After a few days I could get him to target and after about a week we moved to on teaching him "fetch" (which is why I needed to put him on the table in the first place).

And for the record, anyone with a biting parrot do trick training, it seriously helps the bird not to bit. When Bandit use to bite a lot I taught him the spinning trick and since then he stopped biting my hand.

This is so important and I wish more people knew this! My Poi is a biter but I have been able to teach him hands-off tricks such as target, wave, turn in a circle, and wings. We are working on fetch now. I deliver treats from a measuring cup because I can't do it with my hands. You can modify many tricks to get away from having to touch your bird if you have a biter.

With some birds a trick or two is enough to overcome the biting but he is a rescue who (for practical purposes) has been abused by women so he still tries to bite my hands. My next step is going to be using positive reinforcement to help him overcome his fear/aggression toward women's hands but I wanted to teach him other tricks first instead of just starting out with hands because that's going to take a really, really long time.

[Cockatielsongs]

I do my training and stuff on the floor in a room because he refuses to co operate on a T stand or table top. If I put him on his training stand or table top he will ignore me and will stop at nothing to get down onto the floor not matter how high it is he will jump onto the floor. So yeah, the floor is the only place he would be interested in training. The bad thing is that being on the floor lets him run away from under my hand...

It sounds like you really need to train grabbing and handling on a stand because then he won't be able to run away. If he won't cooperate on a stand or refuses to stay there you can use positive reinforcement to teach him to stay on a stand. Reward him for sitting still for a few seconds, then for a bit longer and a bit longer until eventually he will stay there.

He knows turn in a circle so put him on a stand and cue turn in a circle, reward. Before he has the chance to fly away cue it again, reward. Do sessions like this until he will eventually sit still on the stand. Once he associates the stand with treats he will stay there.

Thanks! I'll try that! Hopefully it works

After a few days I could get him to target and after about a week we moved to on teaching him "fetch" (which is why I needed to put him on the table in the first place).

How do you teach your bird to fetch? I've been trying and he doesn't get that he has to bring the ball back to me instead of running off with it

With some birds a trick or two is enough to overcome the biting but he is a rescue who (for practical purposes) has been abused by women so he still tries to bite my hands. My next step is going to be using positive reinforcement to help him overcome his fear/aggression toward women's hands but I wanted to teach him other tricks first instead of just starting out with hands because that's going to take a really, really long time.

Yup, tricks definiteky work! Best of luck with Poi! He is very lucky to have you



Thanks so much for your reply!

[Andromeda]

How do you teach your bird to fetch? I've been trying and he doesn't get that he has to bring the ball back to me instead of running off with it?

Due to the fact that a bird with unlimited room (such as on the floor) will just run off, fetch needs to be taught on a perch or a table. Once you have used positive reinforcement to teach your bird to train on a perch or table you can teach fetch and he won't have as much room to run off.

Michael's guide to fetch is here.

I taught my bird to pick up the object himself (instead of handing it to the bird as in Michael's guide) so I taught it on a table because I needed somewhere to place the object. However, the other steps are the same as in Michael's guide.

[Cockatielsongs]

How do you teach your bird to fetch? I've been trying and he doesn't get that he has to bring the ball back to me instead of running off with it?

Due to the fact that a bird with unlimited room (such as on the floor) will just run off, fetch needs to be taught on a perch or a table. Once you have used positive reinforcement to teach your bird to train on a perch or table you can teach fetch and he won't have as much room to run off.

Michael's guide to fetch is here.

I taught my bird to pick up the object himself (instead of handing it to the bird as in Michael's guide) so I taught it on a table because I needed somewhere to place the object. However, the other steps are the same as in Michael's guide.

Thanks for the reply. Will be trying this soon! Let me know how it goes with you!