1st Attempt at Target Training HELP

[Lesa1211]

Hello everyone. Ive been reading tons on target training (mostly from this site) and today was our 1st try. Didnt go as planned tho lol. Maybe some of you could help me out as far as where Im going wrong. So I put Kia on the perch about 10ft away from her cage. I show her the stick(she didnt look like she liked it too much), she touches, I click and give her the treat. That was the one and only time she did it. She flew away trying to get back to her cage. I brought her back to the perch several times and she kept trying to fly back to the cage. It didnt even seem like she was even noticing the stick anymore. I let her go back to the top of her cage where she wanted to be because I didnt want to stress her out.

Should I try in a different room? Im going to try in the morning before I give her breakfast so she's nice and hungry. Maybe she'll stay put for some treats lol. Any advice would be great!

[marie83]

Yes try when she's a bit hungrier and if that doesn't work in another room. You will get there.

Is your bird already conditioned to the clicker and knows it means treat? If not you may need to start there so she knows it's a good thing.

[Lesa1211]

No she doesnt know what the clicker is for. I just started it with her today. I will try in the morning with her before breatfast

[marie83]

Definitely practice the click/treat routine before attempting to target train her then. She needs to associate the click with being given a treat. Once this is achieved the click bridges the gap between the action (such as touching the target) and the reward. Basicly the bird hears the click and knows there is something good coming in the next second. When the behaviours repeated they come to associate touching the stick = a click and reward.

If you get her used to the click/reward system first then she is likely to catch on more quickly when trick training which behaviour is the wanted behaviour if that makes sense?.

[Lesa1211]

Makes alot of sense. Thanks so much for explaining that. Im learning as well with this training stuff so every bit of information I get is helpful. How many times a day would it be ok to try the click/reward with her? I dont want to overwhelm her.

[marie83]

I guess that depends what you have time for. Keep the session short and sweet like you would a normal training session and remember to cut down the food she has in the cage if your giving her loads of extra food via treats. It took me 1x5 minute session to get Ollie used to the clicker whereas Harlies still not used to it as I gave up but when I try again I think I'm going to do 3 xfive minute sessions in 1 day and see if that helps, she's a rescue bird and very nervous so everything takes forever with her.

[Lesa1211]

Great thanks for the help I appreciate it. And good luck!