Seemed to have hit a wall with target training a macaw

[lwis]

I posted a week ago about a blue and gold macaw with a plucking problem. I have had probably six training sessions with her, and she is responding quite well to target training. She is picking up the concepts quickly and seems to have fun while training, pinning her eyes when she hears the clicker and chattering happily to herself as she eats her treat. We have gotten to the point where she will walk to either side of her cage and will climb a little in order to touch the target stick. She will also place one foot on my arm to help her reach, but will not put all of her weight on it. The Whole reason I started clicker and target training with her was to get her to step up and come out of her cage, and also to help with her aggression and fear towards others, but I can't seem to get her to step up. She will put one foot on my arm, but then begins to play with her toys, or she will start dancing or try and play peek-a-boo. It is almost as if she is trying to change the subject or distract me from the task at hand. Sometimes she will just stare at me, and it looks like she really wants to touch the target stick, but she is really unsure about stepping onto my arm. Any tips on how I could get her to come out of her cage?

[Michael]

It is likely that the reason the parrot doesn't want to step on arms is because (for such a heavy bird) they are pretty unstable. So first of all you must have a rock solid arm to avoid any distress. It sounds like you are doing well with target training and definitely keep working on it. It may only be a matter of more time so keep going. What I would do is use a handheld perch as an intermediate step between targeting around cage and targeting onto arm. You see the perch is more familiar and less intimidating.

Target the bird onto the perch, let it treat on perch, target it back off to cage. The first times you do this, lean the handheld perch against a cage perch as an extension and to rest some of the weight. But as you keep going, you can hold it in different ways. Eventually you can move the handheld perch with parrot on it briefly out of cage (but don't push too far all at once) and then back into cage. As you keep going, make the handheld perch smaller and smaller by holding closer toward the bird's end until it is just your hand instead.

http://TrainedParrot.com/Taming
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=227

[lwis]

Thank you for the tips. I have thought about using a perch with Reno, however, it seems that the bird may have had some bad experiences with perches in the past at her previous home. She hate perches. Absolutely terrified of them. I don't want to use them now with my training, because I do not want her to begin to associate training with bad things. She seems to be having fun with it so far and I do not want to discourage her.
I'll keep trying what I am doing. I hope it goes somewhere.
Thanks again.

[Michael]

Well what does she sit on in the cage? Whatever it is, use something like that.

[lwis]

she sits on a wooden perch, but it seems that if that piece of wood is not attached to the cage, and is instead held in a person's hand, she freaks out. I have not personally tried it, but the manager at store she is living in says she is scared of perches. She is not very fond of him and he says that is the only way he can get her out of the cage is with a wooden perch, because she will run away from the perch and out of the cage. I don't want to scare her though.