[VIDEO] (A. Grey) Phobia removal

[cham87]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtG7mh2L ... e=youtu.be

[Michael]

Ok, I'm going to respond this one time cause I don't want you messing up. However, I don't like it when you make topics that are nothing more than a video. This is a forum which is meant for type written discussion topics. It is totally encouraged to post videos that supplement and illustrate what is written about but not meant to be instead of it. It's not fair to make everyone have to watch several minutes of video to even know what the discussion is about. Many times I (and I'm sure others) will check the forum at times when videos can't be played or on a mobile device so it's inconvenient. So from now on, I suggest you at least post a summary of what you're talking about in the text so that it be possible for people to participate in the discussion whether or not they watch the video.

First and most importantly: FORGET THE CLICKER! You are doing more harm than good considering he is not conditioned to it in any good way and it's just making him scared. Just look at what you're doing. He calms down and then you PUNISH him with an unpleasantly startling noise. You are making reverse progress. And this is both in the operant and classical conditioning sense. You going away is merely negative reinforcement and debatable if effective at all. Maybe he just lets down his guard once you are nearby for a while and there is nothing negatively reinforcing about you leaving. It's difficult to tell. But the clicker clearly appears aversive. Furthermore, what behavior are you clicking for? You're creating more of a spanned out temperament than a specific moment of relaxing so the clicker is irrelevant as a specific bridge. This is why I barely ever use a clicker for taming. Yes, it's super effective for training behaviors but for taming it's useless in my opinion.

Since the bird has been neglected for 17 years (but not neglected enough to get the wings clipped??), you will have to REALLY SLOW DOWN!! Think months and months of training. Nothing like budgies at all. First of all Greys are much slower to begin with, then add the phobias and age and you have a lot on your plate. I think its great that you want to do this. But don't push it at all. You want to have a 100% good record with this bird from the moment you started this project. Since this is all new to him, you have a sort of clean slate to set up what kind of relationship he can expect from you. It is better to make 1 inch of progress per day but have him totally trust you and ok with doing that then to push too far some day and have him distrust you all together. Obviously things will become much better once you get to the stage that you can get him to take treats from your hand. But until then you have to take many many days to work things closer and closer until you can be in arms length to offer treats.

Another thing I didn't like is how you quickly approach, let him panic, then wait for relaxing behavior. For the purpose of the video and demonstrating his attitude it works, but not for real taming. It's better to approach slowly from the start and make it so that panic doesn't happen in the first place. Even if it means sitting in a chair and rolling an inch closer every 20 seconds but without him panicking at all. Keep in mind the way classical conditioning works. Every time he feels that panic and sees your face, classical conditioning of that reaction to the site of you may develop. When this happens, your very existence will terribly suck for the bird. It will be helpless but to feel panic around you and you'll have to work even further to overcome that. Right now it probably has a mainly general fear toward people, towels, and perhaps an intentional (perhaps cognitive) distrust for you. However, the more you push it to feel strongly uncomfortable with you, the harder it will be to overcome classically conditioned phobias. So my suggestion is to really slow down, make things more tranquil, avoid all possible aversives (clicker included), and just spend a lot of time around the bird with nothing bad happening to it. Spend a lot more time going about your daily activities (but being conscious that they don't scare the bird). Let him watch you approach and go away without even making eye contact or any specific advances toward him. Let him begin to trust that you're not out to get him. And have a LOT OF PATIENCE, this will not come quickly or easily.

[cham87]

Okay thanks for the response, Mike. I appreciate it. I really like the video recording it 100% makes responses I get from people a lot more precise. I will put a summary of my video but most of my questions need to be in video format for me to feel comfortable asking the question, I get worried of type not being as descriptive as a 1080p video.

His one wing is broken man . I will look into surgery to repair it later down the road. My father who is the original owner said that he could not get it repaired due to the risk of the bird dying during surgery. This was many years ago. I do not know if it still is true.

I WILL slow down like you are saying and just do what I normally do around the bird. With the hopes of eventually being able to get him to take treats out of my hand. When I get to that point then I will start to work on clicker conditioning then targeting.

Once again thanks for the response.

[pennyandrocky]

your movement towards him need to be slow and it should be positive like speaking to him,or when you get close enough a favorite food.i have never used a clicker,but whenever i have seen them used a treat comes with them.take your time he's had 17 years of neglect your not going to get him over it in a day.do what michael says and just go about normal routine,speak to him,eat with him, make him look forward to seeing you.when i had my in my room i started taking all meals in there with him until he became tame enough to come out in the common areas of the house.