by Polarn » Sun Sep 02, 2012 2:15 pm
Is it gentle with your brother and allows him to give him treats etc ?
In that case I would have him conditioning the bird to a clicker by targettraining or whatever really.
Once conditioned to the clicker you cold step in and help him: walk towards the bird when relaxed until you notice the bird stop relaxing, then stop and stand still, ones the bird relaxes again you click and move back a bit. You stepping away serves as the reward, and the click as a neutral bridge that doesn't require your brothers voice. Then you do this procedure over and over again and you will notice that you will be able to walk closer and closer. Once your able to walk all the way up to the playstand before it freaks out you do this a couple of times before you present an actual treat for calming down, just to make the risk of a bite as small as possible. Once you can do this all the way to walking up and treating with the bird never looking stressed, try introducing another person to the same method and that persons presence should be able to be trained really quick since the bird knows the process. Do this with enough people and the bird will learn staying calm and relaxed around people it doesn't neccesarily like or even strangers will earn him rewards.
This might be doable without a clicker but I do think a clicker is wery useful for having interactions with strangers etc since it can entirel remove the favorite person out of the equation. Allowing anyone to use the exact same bridge between desired behavior and the treat.