My brown-headed parrot knows how to fly, but he doesn't do it very often and he's not very good at actually ending up where he intends to go so I'm working on flight recall with him.
He already knows how to target, turn in a circle, wave, and step-up.
I've been working on flight recall with him for about 10 days now. I work with him about 3 times a day. I'm using Michael's training perches.
He'll step from perch to perch no problem.
The problem I'm having is that no matter how far apart the perches are he rarely uses his wings at all. I keep waiting for him to "slip" and have to flap to regain height but it's just not happening.
He always leads with his beak so even if the perches are really far apart he leans out as far as he can and catches the very tip of his beak on the other perch. Using his beak as an "anchor" he then stretches his foot an almost impossible length across the gap until he can reach the other perch. Then he just uses his beak and foot to pull himself up. Sometimes he even ends up upside down and has to use his beak to pull himself up on top of the perch again. It looks like a ton of effort but that's what he's settled on doing as opposed to flying.
Maybe he just needs more time. If he does, that's fine, but I don't want to teach him the "wrong" thing, either. Is there something I can change?
I've tried placing the perches just outside of the reach of his beak but when I do that he refuses to move, no matter how much time I give him.
I've also modeled the behavior with my GCC and he watches as my GCC flies across a small gap from perch to perch.