Aggression during training

[Maltee]

I have recently started formal clicker training with my pionus. She is a one year old female. I am teaching her simple things like "shake," "wave," and "turn around." When the training session starts, she is very eager and motivated, but she quickly turns aggressive. Her head gets fluffed, her tail is flared out, and she looks like a hormonal Amazon. She will start to randomly swipe at my hands and bite if I get close. She rarely gets like this at other times.

Does anyone know why this happens or how should I handle this? Should I just end the training session? What should I do if she bites me?

[Wayne361]

Interesting....is she agressive when not being trained or only when u start to train? If it is only when you train I would limit training till she shows signs of aggression. Hopefully she will get it in her bird-brain that aggression is when fun stops i.e. training. For example if training only lasts 5 minutes before she becomes aggressive limit training to 4 minutes. I know this is idealistic to think aggression happens exactly at a certain point but i would try to guestimate based on body language etc. But I wouldnt in any circumstances offer rewards while bird is showing aggression. Hopefully through persistance the training sessions will be prolonged to the point of no aggression and work to create a stronger bond......as training should.

Wayne

[Dave & Karen]

Does she get this way when you try to show her certain things or does she get agressive regardless of what you're showing her?
She might just be getting tired of whatever you're showing her if it's just with certain things and you can do this excercise less and the other ones more. She might also be having one of those "last chance to breed" hormonal rages going on this time of the year as well since fall is quickly going away and winter is heading in where she'll be a lot less patient with you and with wanting to learn something new.
How does she act when you pet her or give her affection? If she's going chest down, tail up, or acting strangely more excited than usual it might be her pre winter hormones, she's still pretty young but that might be what's going on.

We have a 10 year old female amazon that gets this way and she's the sweetest bird almost all the time, but this part of the year she wants to be in the closet instead of with us, then when she's with us, her patience is much shorter. She wants one thing, then she changes her mind and back and forth a lot, not to mention how over excited she can get just by being pet on the head.

[Maltee]

Yes, normally she is rarely aggressive at other times. However, I have just noticed in the past two days that she seems to be much more territorial over her cage than usual. Usually, I can take her out of her cage whenever I want, and she will step up without a fuss. Starting just yesterday, she has started running up to her top perch and defensively hunching her body down so I can't step her up easily. She will try to bite me if I try to step her up. I'm guessing this is a hormonal thing. How should I handle this?