what to try next?

[chaz1987]

I have an eastern rosella called nolan who has reacently mastered step up as long as a treat is involved not sure what to try next with him. any suggestions welcome.

[dohcsvt]

Target training is always the first basic trick to teach. Many others can be built off of it. Good luck, Nolan is Beautiful!!

[chaz1987]

Target training is always the first basic trick to teach. Many others can be built off of it. Good luck, Nolan is Beautiful!!

Thanks. Your birds look so cute and friendly. i hope nolan is like that some day. He seems to afraid of anything i try to introduce as a target he does like shiney things so if i can find a chrome stick it may work he also likes the smell of fruit juice, he oftern lands on my empty glass, so if i dip the end in fruit juice he may go for it. Everything seems like a challenge with nolan but the reward will be worth it x x

[Michael]

Work on targeting but also begin to work on step up without a treat in sight and eventually without a treat. Two ways to do this. Either

A) Do a bunch of step ups for treat in a row and just use that inertia to do one without a treat in sight but reward still.

or

B) Progressively hold the treat more and more out of view hidden in your hand and hand further and further away so it gets used to the fact that the treat is there but eventually can be entirely hidden

Once this is achieved, you can begin to reward more randomly and sparsely. Just make sure the parrot is highly motivated. Eventually you should develop alternate secondary reinforces to step up and you no longer need to use treats. I never give treats to my parrots for stepping up but it's because step up always leads to good things. This can be the chance to do a trick and earn a treat, petting, doing something interesting to watch, putting away in cage for a meal, etc.