Question about how much treats when training

[bmsweb]

OK another strange thing happened.

I had Jazz on the coffee table and we did some target training again. He did really well and seemed to enjoy it. I stopped while he was really responding well.

In any case I put him up on his temp perch while still on the coffee table and put down the Chopstick and the Clicker (Matchbox Car). Millet treat was on the coffee table also along with a whole heap of computer stuff.

He got off his perch and was on the coffee table again looking around at the mess. He walks past everything, picks up the chopstick and brings it too me and drops it in front of me??? It looked like a dog fetching. I did some more clicker work with him for a couple of minutes. Is this purely accidental? or what? My wife is convinced it was exactly what it looked like and really find that hard to believe. Birds aren't that smart are they?

[Michael]

It's coincidental. The bird was probably just trying to target and it wasn't working so it was persisting. Also I would recommend not giving it the opportunity to do that again cause it could confuse it and hurt training in the future.

If you are getting good with targeting, practice targeting toward and away from you. Reward toward and away from you. And get some other people to target the bird so it can get used to being trained by anyone.

[bmsweb]

Thanks Michael,

I only just started trying the moving away and towards me, like what you did with Kili on the table in the youtube video. I think another couple of days he will have this down perfectly. Sometimes he's a little more cautious and hesitates, but all in all he's come a long way in just over a week of training. This coming sunday we will have had him for 2 weeks and considering he drew blood the first day we got him, all is good now

Hoping to start trying to teach him some tricks in a few weeks time.

[Michael]

I'm glad the method works for you and it's a good thing you did it sooner than later. It's worse when someone has had a biting parrot for years and they decide to try it. It won't erase years of biting immediately but the less history you have with the bird, the easier it is to overcome it.