Teaching a bird to Fetch a ball or something?

[skeetersunconure]

try something he dosent like to chew on as much and is sorta boring and try very very small steps for example when he maybe grabs it click and befire he can do anything telll him good boy and take it away when he throws it do not reward him. what objects have you tried? i really think a black checkerpiece would work because its boring in color. it may just take him awhile to understand maybe you could do some attention exercises by that i mean teach him to keep his attention on you you could try chirping or something so that when he has the objet in his moth make high pitched noises that might distract him from throwing it. another suggestion would be to fly him and get him a little tired and then try.

[Manziboy]

I have tried clicking before he throws it, when he first grabs it but by then it is too late and he has already thrown it. He is very fast at throw (really just shakes his head) and it is immediate. I have tried: coins, pen, blocks, dowels and pieces of rubber. The reason I went on to blocks, is because he likes to chew them, so I thought that might make him want to hold it for even half a second.

I don't have a checker piece, but maybe I can get one. The boring objects get thrown just as quickly as any other object. The only thing I can think of that he will hold longer is a walnut or almond in the shell.

I am already having a problem with his attention span. By wasting his focus on flight training, I think he might not want to trick train at all.

[skeetersunconure]

hmmm... maybe motivation will work? have you target trained him? ot maybe taught him basic tricks like target, turn around, or wave? really you dont want him chewing alot on the object i dont think

[Manziboy]

Yes, he is target trained. He also knows the wave, raising his wings, playing dead, picking the right colored blocks, turn around and most recently I taught him to stay on his back while I juggle him. Like I said before, Manzi learns tricks very quickly. I'm just at a loss for how to teach him to fetch. He is not chewing on any of the objects I am using. The problem is quite the opposite. He doesn't hold them for more than a fraction of a second.

You're right, I don't want him to be chewing on the object, but since he doesn't hold any object that I use to "fetch" I thought that maybe I should use an object that he does chew on. Unfortunately that doesn't work at all since even those objects are immediately thrown.

[Michael]

I think it's just a matter of time. If you consistently reward Manzi when he flings the piece into cup and not when he misses, he'll learn to get it in the cup. Then you start moving the cup progressively further and further away and he'll be forced to use some more care not to drop the piece while getting it there. This worked on budgie but took nearly a month to teach.

[Manziboy]

I do want to teach Manzi this trick. It can be frustrating when, due to my own devices, he's not understanding what I want him to do. I am going to try and make a video to show what I am doing and maybe you guys can take a look to see what I am doing wrong.

I will keep trying to teach Manzi this trick. Hopefully it will click in his head, just like all the other tricks. With all the other tricks, as soon as Manzi figures out what I want, he is very excited to do it because he is rewarded. I'm sure once he realizes that he has to carry the object to me, he will do it very easily. Also, with trick training, it is not like learning a trick is a slow curve upwards. Instead, the line goes from Manzi not knowing the trick, to all of a sudden he figures it out and does it 100% of the time. So, with this trick, the more training sessions I do won't improve Manzi's ability to "fetch" until he figures out what I am asking of him. Right now we are flat-lining and will continue to do so until somehow Manzi makes the connection or until I think of something more creative to help teach Manzi this trick.

By the way, thanks for all of the advice. I appreciate the ideas.

[skeetersunconure]

well i agree it may just take time it took nearly 2 months for me to teach skeeter to play dead. good luck! you could try contacting birdtricks for advice if you want you could go to their blog birdtricks.com/blog or email them they are good about answering my questions

[Michael]

Training fetch to a budgie was much more difficult because it's not a normal behavior to them. While larger parrots hold stuff in their beak and move around with it, budgies are ground feeders so they have less purpose in carrying something in their beaks.

The first step in teaching Duke to fetch was to get him to even grab the pieces to begin with. This was achieved by targeting the piece with a stick. Then the piece became the new target and once again the budgie was target trained to touch the piece. Then he was encouraged to grab it. Then fling it. And then it just took a lot of time to encourage flinging in the proper direction.


With more practice, he learned to walk over to where the piece has to go (and pick it back up if dropped, not to mention be a magical bird):



Finally he learned to hold it for some duration and walk over to the cup to drop it(2:16-2:30):


This all just took a lot of time. It took many sessions to get him to even grab the piece. Then many more to fling it into the cup/dish. Then even more to walk over and put it in. I think it took about a month. But with patience and perseverance, the budgie picked up on the patterns and learned the trick that most believed only "bigger parrots" could do.

[Manziboy]

By looking at your first video, I realize that your definition of fling, is quite different than what I'm talking about when Manzi flings something. The budgie is holding the object for way longer than Manzi holds it (budgie approx 0.5 secs; Manzi approx 0.05). Even when Manzi does fling the coin into the bowl, he holds it for a fraction of the time that the budgie is holding it for. Also, African Greys are scavengers and ground feeders, unlike most other parrots. Maybe this is leading to part of the difficulties.

Another problem I am having is finding a good training place. For all of Manzi's other tricks, I use his play stand, the table or a chair, but in this case those are not good options. He flings the objects much too wildly and I spend too much time picking them up off the ground. If I train directly on the ground, Manzi is much more likely to run/fly away, like up to his play stand.

Maybe I should make a new plan. Manzi can figure out how to fling the coin/object into the metal bowl if the bowl is very close. I was trying to move the bowl away within a couple of training sessions. Maybe I should leave it very close for many training sessions (like a week) before I start moving it away ever so slowly. I'm going to implement that beginning with tonight.

[skeetersunconure]

well like michel said he used the object as a target so when duke touched the object he got a reward and it eventually led to holding. for starters why dont just practice that and see if he gets better. what are you using to begin with? also as you said about african greys being scavengers i have seen greys do fetch in the book i have that only took a matter of days to teach.