Gryphon and I need Help! Lot's of ??'s

[Mona]

Hi Kathy:

Good for you for continuing with your training.

I just wanted to let you know that training very seldom progresses every day. There are always good days and bad days. I know that with my parrots - there are days that NOTHING gets accomplished (heck, they fly away as if to taunt me) ...but if I am persistent, another day they get the behavior and it is as if they have known it for years.

so....don't be discouraged. The secret to training is simple: Persistence..... Practice, practice, practice.

You may have many days that the bird doesn't want to take a treat or does not seem to understand and then one day....."Bam!" that light bulb moment. Once you have the behavior, you will completely forget those difficult training days and you will think that you really did have the behavior all along.

What I do, if I can't get a new behavior....is go back one step to a behavior that the bird has fluently. I ask for the known, simple, fluent behavior and then I reinforce (or reward). That way, the bird has a positive association with training. I usually like to put them away after one "good" behavior and for your bird, that could be as simple as taking the treat at this stage. Just one behavior that he will do easily and consistently so he gets reinforced and you end the session on a positive note.

Good job. Time is your ally. It is on your side.

Thanks!

[Harley's Mom]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice/responses and give you a little update on Gryphon's progress.

Doing further research I have found out he is quite a bit older than I first thought. The lady I got him from purchased him as a wild captured bird in 1978 or 79 as an adult with a hen. She was not the original owner, so that puts his age at 30-35 yrs instead of 20.

He is still pretty much a hands off bird, but he is still taking treats nicely and never lunges to attack. I take things at his pace and if I see he's stressing or giving slight body language he's uncomfortable, I back off.

He did allow me, a couple of weeks ago, to give him head scritches for about 5 mins, which I never thought would have happened. He hasn't allowed it since, so I cherish that one occurrence. It was wonderful for once to see the look of calm come over him, with his eyes closed, head bowed and enjoying me touching his head/neck.

I have a YouTube account with several videos of my birds, k9retten
The latest one shows how Gryphon has learned to put himself to bed when asked. He really is a very good boy, he's just not trusting fully of humans. I will just keep taking things at his pace.



Again, thank you all for the words of encouragement!

[Harley's Mom]

Here is another video of Gryphon while he is perched on my arm.
You will notice he is still a bit uneasy. This was taken at the end of March. he will allow me to touch his feet, beak and sometimes his chest.

[captwest]

Sorry i missed your thread and didn't see it til now.Your doing great and i'm sure things will improve as you go along. Good Luck, Richard