Daisy still doesn't seem to step up very well

[hlasdf]

Sorry you guys keep seeing my pleads for help!
I've had Daisy, my lovebird, for a few months now, and I've been using Michael's training guides by targeting her to do things. She's gotten really good at it and knows some tricks including stepping up. However, she only steps up when she's in what I call "Training Mode." She enters this mode when she sees me getting treats or holding the targeting stick, and does whatever it is I want her to do, because she knows she'll get a reward. But if we're not training and are just going about our daily business, she runs from my hands or gets very aggressive when I bring them near her to get her to step up. I've noticed she's better at stepping up from perches than on flat surfaces, but I think it's because she has less room to run away on a perch. Laddering her from finger to finger is also something we've done but she stops after 3 or 4 times after she finds out she's not getting anywhere. Training in different/unfamiliar rooms also seems to have no affect on her. Stepping up doesn't seem like anything she can do out of habit or praise(which she cares none for). Some have told me to have to hide treats on me at all times and give them to her when she steps up, but as soon as she finds out I have them, she doesn't stop trying to get to them, repeatedly biting me to try and get me to hand them over. Am I missing a certain step in the training process? Am I doing something(s) wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

[marie83]

I think informal training sessions are as important as the formal ones, particuarly in the early days. I've had it before where the bird seems to think "well we aren't doing a training session so ignoring the command has bigger benefits to me".
In fact at one stage I actually think I trained Ollie to do so, the main reason to get them to step up outside a training session was to put them away so he lkearned toignore me to avoid getting put away.
This is where the informal training kicks in, have a few treats to hand and approach the bird every so often just to give it a treat, walk away immediately and resume whatever you were doing.

Soon your bird will stop running away and you can then ask for step ups in return for the reward. Again use the same approach, just go up randomly, ask for the step up, treat and leave the bird alone again.
Then you can ask for step ups, walk a few steps, treat and put the bird back where it was, build up slowly so you can walk round the room including directly past the cage before you put the bird back where it was without it running away.

Once you got to that point its a good idea to practice putting daisy back in the cage and get her straight back out again.

[hlasdf]

I think informal training sessions are as important as the formal ones, particuarly in the early days. I've had it before where the bird seems to think "well we aren't doing a training session so ignoring the command has bigger benefits to me".
In fact at one stage I actually think I trained Ollie to do so, the main reason to get them to step up outside a training session was to put them away so he lkearned toignore me to avoid getting put away.
This is where the informal training kicks in, have a few treats to hand and approach the bird every so often just to give it a treat, walk away immediately and resume whatever you were doing.

Soon your bird will stop running away and you can then ask for step ups in return for the reward. Again use the same approach, just go up randomly, ask for the step up, treat and leave the bird alone again.
Then you can ask for step ups, walk a few steps, treat and put the bird back where it was, build up slowly so you can walk round the room including directly past the cage before you put the bird back where it was without it running away.

Once you got to that point its a good idea to practice putting daisy back in the cage and get her straight back out again.

Thanks for the help! I'll try and do this "informal training" right away and let you know how it goes.