by Kathleen » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:47 pm
One problem you may run into is confusion from the bird.
What I think is an important thing to consider in the long run is teaching tricks in a sequence which are not related to each other. A possibility is that your bird will get confused by the target stick. Right now, the cue is the target stick. The bird sees the target stick and if it is properly target trained, it knows when it sees that stick to go and follow it and touch it to get it's reward. If you train it to turn around immediately after teaching target, the bird may not be able to separate these into two behaviors. It may confuse target training with turn around. It may see the target stick and start spinning in a circle instead of following it.
Or maybe I am wrong and it will be able to separate the two behaviors. The bottom line is, you want to teach similar tricks like this very separately from each other and in between teaching similar tricks, you want to stick a trick in the middle that is not similar at all. What I would recommend doing is not teaching a trick that involves the target stick right after teaching target training. I'd recommend a different trick like teaching wave or a trick that uses a completely different prop.