Advice on a good area to train?

[Kirsten]

Alright, I admit it. I've been ignoring training my 9 month old Sun Conure. It's not like I don't have the time to take out of my day, it's just another problem: Every room in the house has distractions!

Here's a bit of an idea of what I mean: The first floor is my grandparents room. Since they can't hear they blast the TV extremely loud and shout at each other. Grandma falls all the time, grandpa has this weird thing where he hums all the time and doesn't know he's doing it. So that area's out. The family room and kitchen are pretty much the social hub of the house. My insane aunt is OCD and is always vacuuming or cleaning or trying to watch some sort of show about criminals...or she's talking on the phone very, very loudly. Even when she's not there, (which isn't very often) you can STILL hear grandma and grandpa through the doors and you have to be constantly aware of them when they come out of the bathroom in case they fall.

So the second floor. All of the rooms here are occupied. The two areas that I have considered the most are my parent's bedroom and our computer room. However, the computer room has windows, several, well, computers that loudly remind you of appointments, viruses, you know, computer things. What it does have is a door that can easily be locked to prevent distractions, however, it's next to my insane aunt's room. She likes to blast music in her room, when she's showering, etc. Also my cousin is in the room next to that and so long as she doesn't talk, she's quiet. Not to mention, again, my aunt cleans the whole second floor.

Then there's my parent's bedroom. This room has a good deal of space and probably the least things to look at. The door is difficult to close all the way and one of the dogs likes to hang out on my parent's bed. This particular dog LOVES Skittles. By that, I mean as soon as she sees her she jumps off the bed and follows the bird wherever she goes, wagging her tail. I blame my parents who babysat Skittles and let her preen this particular dog who previously scared to death of her. Now I could try to keep her out but this dog will scratch the door until you let her in.

Finally, there's the third floor and my room. My room has no lock on the door, has distractions everywhere and honestly, I'm a slob. Things are laying around everywhere. Because it's the third floor, any rain or slight gust of wind can be heard clearly (hail storms are the worst). This is where her cage is along with a loud air conditioner, two fans, a tv, a computer that likes to make odd sounds, several Japanese robot action figures, Star Trek models, computer parts, etc.

So basically, I need some help figuring out where I can set aside a little training perch. Since Skittles steps up fine I was going to start with target training. I've already got a clicker ready for training. I really want to make her more hand tame and help our bond grow. However, as loud and chaotic as my household is, I need help. One final note however: There has been one nice result from this environment at least. Skittles doesn't even twitch at the sound of vacuums, fans, blenders, etc. She'll just chill on my shoulder while I vacuum out her cage.

[patdbunny]

Bathroom. Make sure the toilet lid's closed.

[GlassOnion]

Bathroom. Make sure the toilet lid's closed.

[Kirsten]

Bathroom. Make sure the toilet lid's closed.

Wow. How did I not think of that? Thank you!

[patdbunny]

I knew about the bathroom 'cause I'm old. The bathroom was the go-to taming room in the good ol' days when birds were wild caught. Small bathrooms - not many places for the bird to hide so it was easy to retrieve the bird, no distractions, easy to clean poop off the linoleum, nothing the bird can really destroy.

RIGHT CAPT???!!

[issy]

Why don't you try focusing on the time rather than the place of training. My house is also very busy and has a lot of distractions, but not at 6.00am in the morning. Try finding a time that your house is less active.

[Kim S]

You know, it wouldnt be such a bad thing to try and train in the room the bird is kept. That is the room he is used to and feels comfortable in. All the funny loud noises is something he is used to so it wouldnt be a distraction perse. Just the regular noises that are part of his daily life.